Publications by authors named "Yoani N Herrera"

Growing evidence suggests that neuropeptide signaling shapes auditory computations. We previously showed that neuropeptide Y (NPY) is expressed in the inferior colliculus (IC) by a population of GABAergic stellate neurons and that NPY regulates the strength of local excitatory circuits in the IC. NPY neurons were initially characterized using the NPY-hrGFP mouse, in which humanized renilla green fluorescent protein (hrGFP) expression indicates NPY expression at the time of assay, i.

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Growing evidence suggests that neuropeptide signaling shapes auditory computations. We previously showed that neuropeptide Y (NPY) is expressed in the inferior colliculus (IC) by a population of GABAergic stellate neurons and that NPY regulates the strength of local excitatory circuits in the IC. NPY neurons were initially characterized using the NPY-hrGFP reporter mouse, in which hrGFP expression indicates NPY expression at the time of assay, i.

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Chronic opioid exposure induces tolerance to the pain-relieving effects of opioids but sensitization to some other effects. While the occurrence of these adaptations is well understood, the underlying cellular mechanisms are less clear. This study aimed to determine how chronic treatment with morphine, a prototypical opioid agonist, induced adaptations to subsequent morphine signaling in different subcellular contexts.

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Acetylcholine modulates responses throughout the auditory system, including at the earliest brain level, the cochlear nucleus (CN). Previous studies have shown multiple sources of cholinergic input to the CN but information about their relative contributions and the distribution of inputs from each source is lacking. Here, we used staining for cholinergic axons and boutons, retrograde tract tracing, and acetylcholine-selective anterograde tracing to characterize three sources of acetylcholine input to the CN in mice.

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Article Synopsis
  • Chronic opioid exposure leads to a paradox where tolerance develops for pain relief but sensitization occurs for certain effects; the study explores how chronic morphine affects signaling in male and female mice's brain regions.
  • Chronic morphine treatment enhanced the inhibition of synaptic transmission at medial thalamic-dorsomedial striatum (MThal-DMS) connections but reduced inhibition at medial thalamic-anterior cingulate cortex (MThal-ACC) connections, with these effects seen in males only.
  • The study highlights that adaptations in μ-opioid receptor function due to chronic morphine depend on factors like receptor location, local neural circuitry, and sex differences, underscoring the complexity of opioid effects in the brain.
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