Synchrony between midbrain gene transcription and dopamine terminal regulation is modulated by chronic alcohol drinking.

Alcohol use disorder is marked by disrupted behavioral and emotional states which persist into abstinence. The enduring synaptic alterations that remain despite the absence of alcohol are of interest for interventions to prevent relapse. Here, 28 male rhesus macaques underwent over 20 months of alcohol drinking interspersed with three 30-day forced abstinence periods.

Modulation of striatal dopamine dynamics by cocaine self-administration and amphetamine treatment in female rats.

Despite decades of research into the neurobiological basis of cocaine abuse, pharmacotherapeutic treatments for cocaine addiction have been largely ineffective. Converging evidence from preclinical research and from outpatient clinical trials suggest that treatment with amphetamine is efficacious in reducing cocaine intake. Although it has been suggested that amphetamine treatment reduces cocaine intake as an agonist replacement therapy, we have shown recently that multiple aspects of dopamine signaling are altered by cocaine self-administration and returned to pre-cocaine function by amphetamine treatment in the nucleus accumbens of male rats.

Measurement of Dopamine Using Fast Scan Cyclic Voltammetry in Rodent Brain Slices.

Fast scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV) is an electrochemical technique that allows sub-second detection of oxidizable chemical species, including monoamine neurotransmitters such as dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. This technique has been used to record the physiological dynamics of these neurotransmitters in brain tissue, including their rates of release and reuptake as well as the activity of neuromodulators that regulate such processes. This protocol will focus on the use of FSCV for the detection of dopamine within the nucleus accumbens in slices obtained from rodents.

Co-administration of amphetamine with alcohol results in decreased alcohol withdrawal severity in adolescent rats.

Simultaneous use of stimulants and alcohol is a growing problem, particularly among older adolescents already prone to binge alcohol consumption. Adolescent rats consume high levels of alcohol when administered in a liquid diet and develop a strong alcohol withdrawal syndrome. We exploited this system to administer amphetamine in combination with alcohol and to test the effect of co-administration of amphetamine on alcohol withdrawal-induced hypoactivity and overall withdrawal severity.

Enhanced ventral hippocampal synaptic transmission and impaired synaptic plasticity in a rodent model of alcohol addiction vulnerability.

It has long been appreciated that adolescence represents a uniquely vulnerable period when chronic exposure to stressors can precipitate the onset of a broad spectrum of psychiatric disorders and addiction in adulthood. However, the neurobiological substrates and the full repertoire of adaptations within these substrates making adolescence a particularly susceptible developmental stage are not well understood. Prior work has demonstrated that a rodent model of adolescent social isolation (aSI) produces robust and persistent increases in phenotypes relevant to anxiety/stressor disorders and alcohol addiction, including anxiogenesis, deficits in fear extinction, and increased ethanol consumption.