When Desire Collides with Reason: Functional Interactions between Anteroventral Prefrontal Cortex and Nucleus Accumbens Underlie the Human Ability to Resist Impulsive Desires

Negative functional interactions of the Nacc during the desire–reason dilemma. A, Increase in negative connectivity between left Nacc and left avPFC (for display purposes, activation is reported at p = 0.001, uncorrected). B, Increase in negative connectivity between right Nacc and bilateral avPFC (p = 0.001, uncorrected). C, Negative correlation of general behavioral success (i.e., mean percentage of correctly rejected conditioned stimuli) with the degree of functional interaction between right Nacc and left avPFC during the desire–reason dilemma. D, Positive correlation between interindividual differences in trait impulsivity and the degree of functional coupling between right Nacc and left avPFC.