AI Article Synopsis
- Neuronal activity in the nucleus accumbens core (NAcore) is essential for behaviors associated with seeking rewards, and the study explores how this activity relates to drug addiction.
- Researchers used advanced imaging techniques on specific neurons in mice to compare how these neurons responded to natural rewards like sucrose versus drug rewards such as cocaine, particularly during reward-seeking behavior.
- The results indicated that dopamine D1-receptor-expressing neurons in cocaine-trained mice showed consistent activity patterns that were linked to both reward-seeking and cue-induced cravings, suggesting that these neurons play a critical role in prioritizing drug seeking over natural rewards in substance use disorders.
Article Abstract
Neuronal activity in the nucleus accumbens core (NAcore) is necessary for reward-seeking behaviors. We hypothesized that the differential encoding of natural and drug rewards in the NAcore contributes to substance use disorder. We leveraged single-cell calcium imaging of dopamine D1- and D2-receptor-expressing medium spiny neurons (MSNs) in the NAcore of mice to examine differences between sucrose and cocaine rewarded (self-administration) and unrewarded (abstinent and cue-induced) seeking. Activity was time-locked to nose-poking for reward, clustered, and compared between sucrose and cocaine. Only in cocaine-trained mice were excited D1-MSNs securely stable, capable of decoding nose-poking in all rewarded and unrewarded sessions and correlated with the intensity of nose-poking for unrewarded seeking. Furthermore, D1-MSNs formed a stable ensemble predictive of seeking behavior after extended cocaine, but not sucrose abstinence. The excited D1-MSN ensemble uniquely drives cue-induced cocaine seeking and may contribute to why drug seeking is prepotent over natural reward seeking in cocaine use disorder.
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| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11326163 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2024.08.05.606522 | DOI Listing |
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