Midbrain circuit regulation of individual alcohol drinking behaviors in mice

Barbara Juarez, Carole Morel, Stacy M. Ku, Yutong Liu, Hongxing Zhang, Sarah Montgomery, Hilledna Gregoire, Efrain Ribeiro, Marshall Crumiller, Ciorana Roman-Ortiz, Jessica J. Walsh, Kelcy Jackson, Denise E. Croote, Yingbo Zhu, Song Zhang, Leandro F. Vendruscolo, Scott Edwards, Amanda Roberts, Georgia E. Hodes, Yongke Lu, Erin S. Calipari, Dipesh Chaudhury, Allyson K. Friedman and Ming-Hu Han ()
Additional contact information
Barbara Juarez: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Carole Morel: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Stacy M. Ku: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Yutong Liu: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Hongxing Zhang: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Sarah Montgomery: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Hilledna Gregoire: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Efrain Ribeiro: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Marshall Crumiller: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Ciorana Roman-Ortiz: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Jessica J. Walsh: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Kelcy Jackson: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Denise E. Croote: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Yingbo Zhu: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Song Zhang: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Leandro F. Vendruscolo: National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health
Scott Edwards: Neuroscience Center of Excellence, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center
Amanda Roberts: The Scripps Research Institute
Georgia E. Hodes: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Yongke Lu: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Erin S. Calipari: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Dipesh Chaudhury: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Allyson K. Friedman: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Ming-Hu Han: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract Alcohol-use disorder (AUD) is the most prevalent substance-use disorder worldwide. There is substantial individual variability in alcohol drinking behaviors in the population, the neural circuit mechanisms of which remain elusive. Utilizing in vivo electrophysiological techniques, we find that low alcohol drinking (LAD) mice have dramatically higher ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine neuron firing and burst activity. Unexpectedly, VTA dopamine neuron activity in high alcohol drinking (HAD) mice does not differ from alcohol naive mice. Optogenetically enhancing VTA dopamine neuron burst activity in HAD mice decreases alcohol drinking behaviors. Circuit-specific recordings reveal that spontaneous activity of nucleus accumbens-projecting VTA (VTA-NAc) neurons is selectively higher in LAD mice. Specifically activating this projection is sufficient to reduce alcohol consumption in HAD mice. Furthermore, we uncover ionic and cellular mechanisms that suggest unique neuroadaptations between the alcohol drinking groups. Together, these data identify a neural circuit responsible for individual alcohol drinking behaviors.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-02365-8 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:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-017-02365-8

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

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-02365-8

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 ().