Conclusion
In conclusion, this study adds to the current understanding of BA-NAc neurons with respect to their organization for and engagement by stimuli of high emotional salience. The intermediate BA with its magnocellular and parvocellular subregions contains a substantial number/density of NAc-projecting glutamate neurons that are monovalent with respect to estrous-receptive female and aggressive-dominant male. This novel, iterative ex vivo and in vivo evidence demonstrates the importance of this pathway in the circuitry of socio-emotional processing, and in particular of studying the monovalent SR and SA BA-NAc neuronal sub-populations separately. This will need to include the study of causal involvement of these sub-populations in mouse models for psychopathologies of reward or aversion processing, as occur commonly in stress-related neuropsychiatric disorders.