In this chapter, we develop a model of μ- and δ-opioid receptor (OR) effects on cellular activity in the corticostriatal circuit after reviewing clinical data on cognitive and mood impairments in opioid substance use disorder (OUD), we use this model to derive information on the relevance of opioid actions in this circuit for cognition and reward. We find that the cognitive impairments and rewarding properties of acute μ-OR activation can reasonably explained by pharmacological actions in the corticostriatal circuit. However, long-term cognitive impairments and mood dysfunction observed in OUD are probably induced by opiate abuse-related degenerative mechanisms.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/bs.pbr.2018.07.001 | DOI Listing |
Unlabelled: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by restricted and repetitive behaviors and social differences, both of which may manifest, in part, from underlying differences in corticostriatal circuits and reinforcement learning. Here, we investigated reinforcement learning in mice with mutations in either or , both high-confidence ASD risk genes associated with major syndromic forms of ASD. Using an odor-based two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) task, we tested adolescent mice of both sexes and found male and heterozygote (Het) mice showed enhanced learning performance compared to their wild type (WT) siblings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPharmaceuticals (Basel)
January 2025
Department of Translational Research and New Surgical and Medical Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy.
Psychedelics, historically celebrated for their cultural and spiritual significance, have emerged as potential breakthrough therapeutic agents due to their profound effects on consciousness, emotional processing, mood, and neural plasticity. This review explores the mechanisms underlying psychedelics' effects, focusing on their ability to modulate brain connectivity and neural circuit activity, including the default mode network (DMN), cortico-striatal thalamo-cortical (CSTC) loops, and the relaxed beliefs under psychedelics (REBUS) model. Advanced neuroimaging techniques reveal psychedelics' capacity to enhance functional connectivity between sensory cerebral areas while reducing the connections between associative brain areas, decreasing the rigidity and rendering the brain more plastic and susceptible to external changings, offering insights into their therapeutic outcome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBrain Behav Immun
January 2025
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA; Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. Electronic address:
Inflammatory stimuli administered to humans and laboratory animals affect mesolimbic and nigrostriatal dopaminergic pathways in association with impaired motivation and motor activity. Alterations in dopaminergic corticostriatal reward and motor circuits have also been observed in depressed patients with increased peripheral inflammatory markers. The effects of peripheral inflammation on dopaminergic pathways and associated neurobiologic mechanisms and consequences have been difficult to measure in patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnnu Rev Neurosci
January 2025
Department of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences and Carney Institute for Brain Science, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA; email:
The twenty-first century has brought forth a deluge of theories and data shedding light on the neural mechanisms of motivated behavior. Much of this progress has focused on dopaminergic dynamics, including their signaling properties (how do they vary with expectations and outcomes?) and their downstream impacts in target regions (how do they affect learning and behavior?). In parallel, the basal ganglia have been elevated from their original implication in motoric function to a canonical circuit facilitating the initiation, invigoration, and selection of actions across levels of abstraction, from motor to cognitive operations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Psychiatry
January 2025
Department of Neuroscience, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston (Kuhn, Crow, Walterhouse, Chalhoub, Dereschewitz, Roberts, Kalivas); School of Pharmacy, Center for Neuroscience, Pharmacology Unit, University of Camerino, Camerino, Italy (Cannella, Lunerti, Ciccocioppo); Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Biostatistics (Gupta) and Department of Biomedical Informatics (Gupta, Allen, Chung), and Pelotonia Institute for Immuno-Oncology, James Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ohio State University, Columbus (Gupta, Allen, Chung); Department of Internal Medicine, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC (Cockerham, Beeson, Solberg Woods); Department of Psychology, Jacksonville State University, Jacksonville, AL (Nall); Institute for Genomic Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla (Palmer); School of Biological Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland (Hardiman).
Objective: The behavioral and diagnostic heterogeneity within the opioid use disorder (OUD) diagnosis is not readily captured in current animal models, limiting the translational relevance of the mechanistic research that is conducted in experimental animals. The authors hypothesized that a nonlinear clustering of OUD-like behavioral traits would capture population heterogeneity and yield subpopulations of OUD vulnerable rats with distinct behavioral and neurocircuit profiles.
Methods: Over 900 male and female heterogeneous stock rats, a line capturing genetic and behavioral heterogeneity present in humans, were assessed for several measures of heroin use and rewarded and non-rewarded seeking behaviors.
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!