Fields HL, Hjelmstad GO, Margolis EB and Nicola SM (2007) Ventral tegmental area neurons in learned appetitive behavior and positive reinforcement. Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 30:289-316.
Ishikawa A, Ambroggi F, Nicola SM and Fields HL (2008) Dorsomedial prefrontal cortex contribution to behavioral and nucleus accumbens neuronal responses to incentive cues. J. Neurosci. 28:5088-5098.
Ishikawa A, Ambroggi F, Nicola SM and Fields HL (2008) Contributions of the amygdala and the dorsal and ventral medial prefrontal cortex to incentive cue responding. Neuroscience 155:573-584.
Ambroggi F, Ishikawa A, Fields HL and Nicola SM (2008) Incentive cue encoding in the nucleus accumbens depends on basolateral amygdala inputs. Neuron 59:648-661.
Nicola SM (2010) The flexible approach hypothesis: Unification of effort and cue responding hypotheses for the role of nucleus accumbens dopamine in the activation of reward-seeking behavior. J. Neurosci. 8:16585-15600.
Ambroggi F, Ghazizadeh A, Nicola SM, Fields HL (2011) Roles of nucleus accumbens core and shell in incentive cue responding and behavioral inhibition. J. Neurosci. 31:6820-6830.
Du Hoffmann J, Kim JJ and Nicola SM (2011) An inexpensive drivable cannulated microelectrode array for simultaneous unit recording and drug infusion in the same brain nucleus of behaving rats. J. Neurophysiol. 106:1054-1064.
Lardeux S, Kim JJ and Nicola SM (2013) Intermittent access to sweet high-fat liquid induces increased palatability and motivation to consume in a rat model of binge consumption. Physiol. & Behav. 114-115:21-31.
McGinty VB, Lardeux S, Taha SA, Kim JJ and Nicola SM (2013) Invigoration of reward-seeking by cue and proximity encoding in the nucleus accumbens. Neuron 78:910-922.
Du Hoffmann J and Nicola SM (2014) Dopamine invigorates reward seeking by promoting cue-evoked excitation in the nucleus accumbens. J. Neurosci. 34:14349-14364.
Morrison S and Nicola SM (2014) Neurons in the nucleus accumbens promote selection bias for nearer objects. J. Neurosci. 34:4147-14162.
Lardeux S, Kim JJ and Nicola SM (2015) Intermittent-access binge consumption of sweet high-fat liquid does not require opioid or dopamine receptors in the nucleus accumbens. Behav. Brain Res. 292:194-208.
Morrison SE, Bamkole MA and Nicola SM (2015) Sign tracking, but not goal tracking, is resistant to outcome devaluation. Front. Neurosci. 9: article 468.
Du Hoffmann J and Nicola SM (2016) Activation of dopamine receptors in the nucleus accumbens promotes sucrose-reinforced cued approach behavior. Front. Behav. Neurosci. 10: article 144.
Nicola SM (2016) Reassessing wanting and liking in the study of mesolimbic influence on food intake. Am. J. Physiol. Comp. Reg. Integr. Physiol. 311:R811-R840.
Morrison SE, McGinty VB, du Hoffmann J and Nicola SM (2017) Limbic-motor integration by neural excitations and inhibitions in the nucleus accumbens. J. Neurophysiol. 118:2549-2567.
Caref K and Nicola SM (2018) Endogenous opioids in the nucleus accumbens promote approach to high-fat food in the absence of caloric need. eLife 7:e34955.
Vega-Villar M, Horvitz JC and Nicola SM (2019) NMDA receptor-dependent plasticity in the nucleus accumbens connects reward-predictive cues to approach responses. Nature Communications 10:4429.
Lederman J, Lardeux S and Nicola SM (in press) Vigor encoding in the ventral pallidum. eNeuro.