Publications by authors named "Anthony Pawlak"

This daily diary study expands knowledge of the pharmacological alcohol-sleep relationship using a multilevel modeling approach. The interplay between alcohol and sleep on hangover susceptibility is also explored. College students (n = 337; 52 % female) provided 2976 days of self-reported alcohol use.

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This study characterized how quantities of cannabis and alcohol use affect sleep. Single-day and typical cannabis and alcohol use patterns were considered to assess acute-chronic use interactions. Linear and non-linear associations assessed dose-dependence.

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Resumption of drug taking is a primary focus for substance use disorder research and can be triggered by drug-associated environmental stimuli. The Nucleus Accumbens (NAc) is a key brain region which guides motivated behavior and is implicated in resumption. There remains a pressing need to characterize NAc neurons' responsiveness to drug associated stimuli during withdrawal and abstinence.

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Unlabelled: Craving for alcohol and other drugs is often described as a momentary hyperarousal state that interferes with one's ability to use top-down strategies. As such, it may be best interrupted 'in the moment' through bottom-up modulation. We recently reported that episodic resonance paced breathing (eRPB) delivered via mobile phone app as an add-on to outpatient treatment for substance use disorder (SUD) was effective at dampening craving over the course of an 8-week intervention (NCT#02579317).

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Article Synopsis
  • The nucleus accumbens (NAc) core is involved in food reward processing, but it's unclear how it handles different aspects like cues, approach, and consumption.
  • A study utilized advanced recording techniques to analyze neural activity during a Pavlovian task, revealing that NAc firing patterns don't significantly differ between approach and non-approach trials following cues.
  • Findings showed that NAc neurons adapt their response to cues quickly but maintain consistent firing for consumption events, suggesting variability in how neurons process cues and approaches across training sessions.
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Background And Aims: Binge drinking contributes to the immense public health burden associated with alcohol use, especially among younger drinkers. Little is known about the underlying neurobiology of changes in this behavior over time. This preliminary study aimed to identify neurobiological markers of binge drinking behavior change during emerging adulthood.

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The purpose of the current study was to investigate differences in frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) between children (5-17 years) with or without histories of trauma exposure. EEG data were obtained from 165 children who participated in the Healthy Brain Network Initiative during rest with eyes open and closed. FAA during resting-state electroencephalography was significantly more negative in the trauma-exposed group, suggesting greater left lateralized FAA and avoidance-oriented motivation.

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Background: Craving for alcohol and other drugs is a complex in-the-moment experience that involves within-person changes in physiological arousal and affect. We evaluated the utility of a just-in-time, self-administered resonance breathing smartphone application (app) to reduce craving and improve affect in women during outpatient treatment for substance use disorders (SUD).

Methods: Women (N = 57) receiving outpatient addiction treatment were randomized to practice either cardiovascular resonance breathing (0.

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Interoception, the ability to perceive internal bodily sensations, and heart rate variability (HRV) share common physiological pathways, including the baroreflex feedback loop. The baroreflex can be activated by resonance breathing, wherein respiration is paced at 6 times per minute (0.1 Hz), eliciting immediate physiological changes and longer-term therapeutic responses.

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Background: Our brain uses interoceptive signals from the body to shape how we perceive emotions in others; however, whether interoceptive signals can be manipulated to alter emotional perceptions is unknown. Alcohol has acute effects both on emotional processing and on the physiological substrates supporting interoception. In this registered report, we examine whether alcohol administration triggers physiological changes that alter interoceptive signals and manipulate emotional face processing.

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Interoceptive processes emanating from baroreceptor signals support emotional functioning. Previous research suggests a unique link to fear: fearful faces, presented in synchrony with systolic baroreceptor firing draw more attention and are rated as more intense than those presented at diastole. This study examines whether this effect is unique to fearful faces or can be observed in other emotional faces.

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The role of interoceptive signals in the development of cognitive biases for drug-related cues has been hypothesized in the past; however, experimental evidence is lacking. This report examined the relationship between physiological responses and memories for alcohol cues. Participants (n = 158) were categorized as having either a positive or negative family history of alcohol use disorder (AUD).

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Valproic acid (VPA) administered to mice during the early postnatal period causes social, cognitive, and motor deficits similar to those observed in humans with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, previous studies on the effects of early exposure to VPA have largely focused on behavioral deficits occurring before or during the juvenile period of life. Given that ASD is a life-long condition, the present study ought to extend our understanding of the behavioral profile following early postnatal VPA into adulthood.

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Rationale: The role of negative affect as a motivational factor in animal models of drug addiction has been underexplored in the context of cocaine self-administration.

Objectives: The present investigation studied the relationship between magnitude of affective response and quantity of cocaine consumed in order to clarify the affective components that drive drug use in a preclinical model.

Methods: Rats self-administered (SA) cocaine 6 h/day for 14 consecutive days while their ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) were recorded.

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Unlabelled: Numerous studies have shown that certain types of striatal interneurons play a crucial role in selection and regulation of striatal output. Striatal Fast-Spiking Interneurons (FSIs) are parvalbumin positive, GABAergic interneurons that constitute less than 1% of the total striatal population. It is becoming increasingly evident that these sparsely distributed neurons exert a strong inhibitory effect on Medium Spiny projection Neurons (MSNs).

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As drug use becomes chronic, aberrant striatal processing contributes to the development of perseverative drug-taking behaviors. Two particular portions of the striatum, the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and the dorsolateral striatum (DLS), are known to undergo neurobiological changes from acute to chronic drug use. However, little is known about the exact progression of changes in functional striatal processing as drug intake persists.

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The lateral preoptic-rostral lateral hypothalamic continuum (LPH) receives projections from the nucleus accumbens and is believed to be one route by which nucleus accumbens signaling affects motivated behaviors. While accumbens firing patterns are known to be modulated by fluctuating levels of cocaine, studies of the LPH's drug-related firing are absent from the literature. The present study sought to electrophysiologically test whether drug-related tonic and slow-phasic patterns exist in the firing of LPH neurons during a free-access cocaine self-administration task.

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Rationale: Preclinical models of cocaine addiction in the rodent have shown that cocaine induces both positive and negative affective states. These observations have led to the notion that the initial positive/euphoric state induced by cocaine administration may be followed by an opposing, negative process. In the rodent, one method for inferring positive and negative affective states involves measuring their ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs).

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Human self-reports often indicate that changes in mood are a major contributor to drug relapse. Still, arguments have been made that instances of drug-seeking following abstinence in animal models (i.e.

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Amphetamine elicits motoric changes by increasing the activity of central neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin, but how these neurochemical signals are transduced into motor commands is unclear. The dorsolateral striatum (DLS), a component of the cortico-subcortical reentrant motor loop, contains abundant neurotransmitter transporters that amphetamine could affect. It has been hypothesized that DLS medium spiny neurons contribute to amphetamine's motor effects.

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Ventral pallidal (VP) neurons exhibit rapid phasic firing patterns within seconds of cocaine-reinforced responses. The present investigation examined whether VP neurons exhibited firing rate changes: (1) over minutes during the inter-infusion interval (slow phasic patterns) and/or (2) over the course of the several-hour self-administration session (tonic firing patterns) relative to pre-session firing. Approximately three-quarters (43/54) of VP neurons exhibited slow phasic firing patterns.

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Bright light was an effective aversive stimulus for Wistar rats in punishment, escape, and avoidance paradigms. Contingent punishment of lever pressing maintained by concurrent schedules of food delivery shifted presses to an alternate lever, and depressed overall response rates. Periodic non-contingent presentation of the light prompted escape responding (head entry into a hole).

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Rationale: The motivational impetuses underlying self-administration of cocaine and other drugs of abuse are not fully understood. One emerging factor is affect. Both positive and negative affective states have been hypothesized to influence drug seeking and drug taking.

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The rat dorsolateral striatum (DLS) has been implicated in habit formation. Previous studies in our laboratory found that as animals acquired a motor habit or remained goal-directed, tested by reward devaluation, the vast majority of DLS neurons decreased firing rates during the same responses over training days. However, mixed results have been reported in the literature regarding whether DLS neurons exhibit cue reactivity.

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