Cocaine induces locomotor sensitization through a dopamine-dependent VTA-mPFC-FrA cortico-cortical pathway in male mice

Lun Wang, Min Gao, Qinglong Wang, Liyuan Sun, Muhammad Younus, Sixing Ma, Can Liu, Li Shi, Yang Lu, Bo Zhou, Suhua Sun, Guoqing Chen, Jie Li, Quanfeng Zhang, Feipeng Zhu (), Changhe Wang () and Zhuan Zhou ()
Additional contact information
Lun Wang: Peking University
Min Gao: Peking University
Qinglong Wang: Peking University
Liyuan Sun: Peking University
Muhammad Younus: Peking University
Sixing Ma: Peking University
Can Liu: Peking University
Li Shi: Peking University
Yang Lu: Peking University
Bo Zhou: Peking University
Suhua Sun: Peking University
Guoqing Chen: Peking University
Jie Li: Peking University
Quanfeng Zhang: Peking University
Feipeng Zhu: Peking University
Changhe Wang: Xi’an Jiaotong University
Zhuan Zhou: Peking University

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Abstract As a central part of the mammalian brain, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) has been implicated in regulating cocaine-induced behaviors including compulsive seeking and reinstatement. Although dysfunction of the PFC has been reported in animal and human users with chronic cocaine abuse, less is known about how the PFC is involved in cocaine-induced behaviors. By using two-photon Ca2+ imaging to simultaneously record tens of intact individual networking neurons in the frontal association cortex (FrA) in awake male mice, here we report that a systematic acute cocaine exposure decreased the FrA neural activity in mice, while the chemogenetic intervention blocked the cocaine-induced locomotor sensitization. The hypoactivity of FrA neurons was critically dependent on both dopamine transporters and dopamine transmission in the ventromedial PFC (vmPFC). Both dopamine D1R and D2R neurons in the vmPFC projected to and innervated FrA neurons, the manipulation of which changed the cocaine-induced hypoactivity of the FrA and locomotor sensitization. Together, this work demonstrates acute cocaine-induced hypoactivity of FrA neurons in awake mice, which defines a cortico-cortical projection bridging dopamine transmission and cocaine sensitization.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37045-3 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-37045-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37045-3

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().