Depue & Collins's model of incentive-motivational
modulation of goal-directed behavior subserved by a medial orbital
prefrontal cortical (MOC) network is appealing, but it leaves several
questions unanswered: How are the stimuli that elicit an incentive
motivational state selected? How does the incentive motivational state
created by the MOC network modulate behavior? What is the function
of the dopaminergic input to the striatum? This commentary suggests
possible answers, based on the open-interconnected model of
basal-ganglia-thalamocortical circuits, in which the limbic circuit
selects goals and, via its connections with the motor and the
associative circuits, directs behavior according to those goals,
elaborating on the role of dopamine.