PL neurons that project to NAcC activate in proportion to cocaine seeking, but not sucrose seeking. a, PL neurons retrogradely labeled from NAcC expressed a significantly greater percentage of Fos during cue-induced reinstatement of cocaine seeking (black bar, n = 10) compared with extinction of cocaine seeking (white bar, n = 7). There were no differences in the percentage of Fos in the IL-NAcC projection during extinction (n = 7) versus cue-induced reinstatement of cocaine seeking (n = 10). Similar to the PL-NAcC pathway, BLA and vSub neurons that are retrogradely labeled from NAcC showed significantly greater percentages of Fos during cue-induced reinstatement of cocaine seeking (n = 10) compared with extinction (n = 7). b, There were no differences in the percentage of Fos in the PL-NAcC projection during extinction (white bar, n = 5) and cue-induced reinstatement of sucrose seeking (black bar, n = 9). The percentages of Fos+ IL, BLA, or vSub neurons that were retrogradely labeled from NAcC also did not differ between extinction (n = 5) and cue-induced reinstatement sucrose seeking (n = 9). c, The percentages of Fos+ PL, IL, BLA, or vSub neurons that were retrogradely labeled from NAcSh did not differ between extinction (white bars, n = 7) and cue-induced reinstatement of cocaine seeking (black bars, n = 10). d, The percentages of Fos+ PL, IL, BLA, or vSub neurons that were retrogradely labeled from NAcSh did not differ between extinction (white bars, n = 4) and cue-induced reinstatement of sucrose seeking (black bars, n = 6). e, The percentages of Fos+ PL neurons retrogradely labeled from NAcC during cue-induced reinstatement of cocaine seeking correlated with the first 30 min of active lever pressing in individual rats (circles, n = 10). However, Fos activation in the same circuit did not correlate with cue-induced reinstatement of sucrose seeking (f, n = 9). Bar graphs and error bars indicate mean ± SEM. *p < 0.05. n.s., Not significant.