Hippocampal pathways once thought separate converge to integrate 'where' and 'why' in reward processing

MedicalXpress | апр 10, 2026

New research from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) reveals how two different parts of the brain's memory center team up in a key reward region to help mice—and likely humans—combine memories of places and contexts with the drive to pursue rewards. The findings offer fresh insight into how the brain integrates information about "where" and "what feels good" to guide everyday decisions, such as heading to a favorite restaurant to meet friends or seeking out rewarding experiences. Specifically, this discovery, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, shows that inputs from the dorsal and ventral hippocampus converge on the same individual neurons in another brain region, the nucleus accumbens, where they interact in ways that amplify each other's effects.