Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior

This study shows that acute serotonin reduction in rats impairs decision making and social recognition memory, particularly in individuals already prone to poor decision making.

The paper shows that blue light can falsely trigger dopamine release measurements using RdLight1, questioning previous findings on cholinergic interneurons' role in dopamine release.

This study shows that operant training with highly palatable food alters translating mRNA in NAc D2 neurons and that Ncdn downregulation modulates satiety-sensitive feeding behavior.

This study examines how acute and chronic alcohol exposure affects calcium dynamics in the extended amygdala, showing changes in neuronal activity and coherence in a sex-specific manner.

This study identifies transcriptional changes in mouse VTA cell types after fentanyl self-administration using single nuclei RNA sequencing.

This study shows that mPFC noradrenergic transmission is critical for updating stimulus-outcome associations after contingency degradation, while vlOFC is not involved.

The paper introduces the Switchmaze, an open-design device to measure motivational switching in mice, showing its utility in studying neural mechanisms of behavior.

This study identifies Rheb as a molecular substrate in the nucleus accumbens that enables drugs of abuse to hijack reward circuits and suppress natural reward responses.

The paper identifies a novel population of Oprm1-expressing neurons in the NAc marked by Chst9 expression, showing spatial and transcriptional distinctiveness across species.

This study investigates how HIV infection affects cocaine craving and neuroimmune responses in mice, showing differential effects based on cocaine exposure patterns and abstinence duration.

The paper investigates how estrogen and corticotropin releasing factor regulate cholinergic interneurons in the nucleus accumbens, finding sex-specific mRNA expression patterns and interactions.

This study shows that stopping SSRIs like paroxetine leads to increased 5-HT activity in the brain, causing anxiety-like behaviors and changes in neurotransmitter levels.

The paper investigates sex differences in oxycodone-taking behaviors in rats, finding that impaired reward-guided decision-making is linked to increased opioid use and addiction-related behaviors in females.

This paper identifies nitrergic interneurons as key mediators of cue-induced synaptic plasticity in D1 MSNs required for cocaine seeking, showing that targeting nNOS or mGluR5 blocks relapse.

This study investigates how dopamine D2/D3 antagonism affects mental state inference and self-relevance of social outcomes using a game-theoretic paradigm and computational model.

This study investigates whether aged rats exhibit behavioural deficits relevant to apathy syndrome across multiple domains, finding deficits in cognitive flexibility but not other domains, suggesting aged rats are not a suitable model for age-related apathy.

The paper investigates sex differences in interval timing across humans and rodents, finding no sex differences in timing accuracy or precision but distinct dopaminergic effects in males.

This study investigates how the central amygdala encodes and controls reward consumption in rats, showing that optogenetic stimulation enhances intake of preferred rewards but not less-preferred ones.

This study shows that blocking serotonin signaling in the dorsal hippocampus during initial cocaine abstinence reduces persistent drug seeking.

This study identifies Tmod2 as a regulator of cocaine-induced plasticity and addiction-related behaviors through effects on neuronal excitability and synaptic function.

This study examines how corticosterone affects sign- and goal-tracking behaviors in male and female rats from different vendors, finding sex- and vendor-dependent effects on acquisition but not expression.

The paper investigates the role of dorsomedial striatal glutamatergic transmission in limiting binge drinking in cHAP mice, finding that DMS glutamatergic activity reduces alcohol consumption.

This study shows that maturation of prefrontal cortex to dorsal raphe nucleus projections in mice enhances behavioral persistence, as demonstrated by optogenetic stimulation and genetic ablation experiments.

The paper investigates the role of the mPFC-to-VTA pathway in impulsive action and risk-related decision-making in rats, finding it modulates impulsive action but not decision-making.

The paper compares gene expression in the nucleus accumbens during cocaine withdrawal and extinction in rats, identifying distinct transcriptional patterns associated with different behavioral outcomes.

The paper examines sex differences in neural activity patterns associated with ethanol-induced social facilitation and inhibition in adolescent rats.

The paper investigates cortico-striatal control of action selection in rats with different cognitive-motivational styles, finding differences in glutamate release patterns during cued turns.

This study shows chronic ethanol exposure impairs cognitive flexibility and striatal decision signals in male rats, with specific changes in neural representations of actions and outcomes.

This study compares SUD-like phenotypes in rats self-administering MDPV or cocaine under different access conditions, finding MDPV induces more severe phenotypes than cocaine under short-access.

This study uses a fluorescent dopamine sensor to show that medial prefrontal cortex dopamine dynamics reflect selective attention, responding to both appetitive and aversive stimuli and preceding behavioral engagement.