The ventral striatum

Do you know what is the function of the ventral striatum? It is a part of the brain sitting in the middle, somewhat above the thalamus, that is part of the valuation system. Together with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, it represents the subjective value of what you are experiencing, thinking of buying, deciding to choose. What’s valuable to the VS? Food, money, sex, social connection, curiosity… endless list of things that are good for you!

Its response is wonderfully adaptive to social and learned norms, contextual information and past reward history, and reflects personality preferences (such as novelty seeking).

In December 2017, I took part in a science movie making hackathon and this is what we made in 3 days: