Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior

The paper identifies 'Augmenter' rat strains with increased oxycodone intake during extended access, showing heightened hedonic impact drives heritable, female-biased augmentation of drug consumption.

This study investigates fentanyl relapse mechanisms using a Drd1-cre mouse line, finding blunted fentanyl seeking despite similar self-administration and increased D1 receptor expression.

The paper validates Zhx2 as a quantitative trait gene influencing brain oxymorphone levels and opioid behavior through genetic and multi-omics analyses in mice.

This study investigates how nucleus accumbens dopamine responds to reward-related stimuli during trace conditioning, finding bidirectional dopamine changes correlate with response latency.

This study identifies translating mRNAs linked to incubation of cocaine craving in specific nucleus accumbens core neurons using TRAP-seq in transgenic rats.

This study shows that environmental enrichment restores brain metabolic activity in specific regions during cocaine abstinence, with different effects over time.

The paper shows that estradiol, not testosterone, mediates stress susceptibility in male mice by modulating specific neural circuits, and brain delivery of estradiol prevents depression-like behaviors.

This study shows that repeated binge-like alcohol drinking increases aggression in mice during acute and abstinence phases, but not in alcohol-involved aggression.

This study investigates how dopamine signals in different nucleus accumbens subregions contribute to avoidance learning by analyzing their responses to aversive stimuli and learning progress.

This study investigates how distinct subcircuits within the mesolimbic dopamine system encode the salience and valence of social stimuli through differential dopamine release patterns.

The paper identifies a common neural motif in prefrontal-cortical and ventral-hippocampal inputs to nucleus accumbens that integrates reward history and shows how these inputs co-operatively modulate task engagement.

This study identifies D3R-expressing neurons in the NAc as mediators of quetiapine's aversive effects, showing that chronic treatment reduces this aversion.

The paper investigates subcortical nuclei activity during reward anticipation and memory encoding, finding increased activity during reward anticipation but no predictive effect on memory.

The paper investigates whether 20- and 50-Hz optical stimulation of midbrain dopamine neurons produce functionally distinct effects, finding that differences are quantitative rather than qualitative and related to reward intensity.

This study shows that LHA GABAergic and glutamatergic neurons independently scale activity during consumption and cooperatively regulate striatal dopamine release in mice.

This study shows that suvorexant, a dual hypocretin receptor antagonist, reduces oxycodone seeking and normalizes dopamine function during abstinence.

This study shows that low affinity noradrenergic signaling shifts behavior from active avoidance to passive coping during reinforcement tasks, with sex differences observed in reward seeking.

This study shows dopamine reward transients rapidly recalibrate movement timing through one-shot updates to behavioral vigor, revealing a mechanism linking dopamine's roles in reinforcement, motivation, and movement.

The paper investigates how GSK3B inhibition with tideglusib reverses ethanol-induced transcriptomic changes in mouse brains and links these findings to human genetic risk for alcohol dependence.

The paper identifies distinct VTA neuronal ensembles for reward and stress and shows their necessity for adaptive behaviors.

This study shows that temporal uncertainty during reward cue presentation increases sign-tracking behavior in mice, and this effect persists even after uncertainty is removed.

This study challenges the traditional view of VTA interneurons by showing that GABA and glutamate projection neurons in the VTA also form local synapses, suggesting they may fulfill roles previously attributed to interneurons.

This study investigates how dopamine and acetylcholine dynamics in the nucleus accumbens change with repeated psychostimulant exposure and finds that D2 receptor signaling on cholinergic interneurons is critical for sensitization of neural responses but not for behavioral sensitization.

The paper measures dopamine and serotonin release in the striatum after cocaine and neuronal stimulation, finding parallel dynamics with limited asymmetric crosstalk.

This study introduces a no-timeout self-administration procedure to better mimic human heroin use patterns in rats, showing it alters heroin intake and social behavior but not cocaine use.

This study investigates the interactions between serotonergic and noradrenergic systems in awake mice, revealing their combined and distinct roles in pupil-linked arousal.

The study examines how prior ethanol exposure and session duration affect ethanol self-administration in rats, finding no benefit from prior exposure and reduced intake with shorter sessions.

This study examines the effects of acute alcohol consumption on decision-making in male and female rats using a novel behavioral task, revealing sex-dependent differences in approach-avoid behavior.