Ventral capsule / ventral striatum target

A ventral forebrain target spanning the anterior limb of the internal capsule and the adjacent ventral striatum and nucleus accumbens, used in DBS for both treatment-resistant depression and OCD, where it engages reward and prefrontal-striatal circuitry.

As with the subcallosal cingulate, VC/VS DBS for depression showed benefit in open-label series but did not meet the primary endpoint of a randomized controlled trial, while long-term follow-up was more favorable. For OCD, stimulation of this region carries a US Humanitarian Device Exemption, making it one of the very few regulator-sanctioned psychiatric neuromodulation targets. Because the same anatomical territory serves two disorders, it is a natural test bed for the circuit-based hypothesis that shared network engagement, not diagnosis, predicts response.