Motivation facilitates recovery after neuronal damage, but its mechanism is unclear. It is generally thought that the nucleus accumbens regulates motivation-driven effort but is not involved in the direct control of movement. Using causality analysis, the authors of this study identified the flow of activity from the nucleus accumbens to the sensorimotor cortex during the recovery of dexterous finger movements after spinal cord injury in macaque monkeys. Reversible pharmacological inactivation of the nucleus accumbens during the early recovery period diminished high-frequency oscillatory activity in the sensorimotor cortex. This was accompanied by a transient deficit of amelioration in finger dexterity obtained by rehabilitation. The authors concluded that during recovery after spinal injury, the nucleus accumbens up-regulates the high-frequency activity of the sensory motor cortex and is directly involved in the control of finger movements.
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Sawada M, Kato K, Kunieda T, Mikuni N, Miyamoto S, Onoe H, Isa T, Nishimura Y: Function of the nucleus accumbens in motor control during recovery after spinal cord injury. Science 350(6256): 98-101 (2015).
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26430122