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Answering such a fundamental question will expand our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying motivated behaviors. Although the nucleus accumbens has an established role in representing goal-directed actions and their outcomes, it is not known whether this function is localized within the nucleus accumbens or distributed also within the OT. The many cellular, afferent, and efferent similarities between the ventral striatum's nucleus accumbens and olfactory tubercle (OT) suggests the distributed involvement of neurons within the ventral striatopallidal complex in motivated behaviors. The ventral striatum is critical for evaluating reward information and the initiation of goal-directed behaviors. The Neural Representation of Goal-Directed Actions and Outcomes in the Ventral Striatum's Olfactory Tubercle The current core-shell- tubercle scheme should be reconsidered in light of recent anatomical data and these functional findings. Thus, the medial shell and medial tubercle are more functionally related than the medial and ventral shell or the medial and lateral tubercle. Our results suggest that primary reinforcement of amphetamine is mediated via the medial portion of the ventral striatum. Rats quickly learned to self-administer D-amphetamine into the medial shell or medial tubercle, whereas they failed to learn to do so into the accumbens core, ventral shell, or lateral tubercle. Here, we report results suggesting that the current division of the ventral striatum into the accumbens core and shell and the olfactory tubercle does not reflect the functional organization for amphetamine reward. Interestingly, anatomical evidence suggests that medial portions of the shell and tubercle receive afferents from common zones in a number of regions. The accumbens has been implicated in the rewarding effects of psychomotor stimulants, whereas recent work suggests that the medial accumbens shell and medial olfactory tubercle mediate the rewarding effects of cocaine. When projection analyses placed the nucleus accumbens and olfactory tubercle in the striatal system, functional links between these sites began to emerge. The functional divide for primary reinforcement of D-amphetamine lies between the medial and lateral ventral striatum: is the division of the accumbens core, shell, and olfactory tubercle valid?