Lorenzo Leggio, M.D., Ph.D. is a 2023 recipient of the Arthur S. Flemming Award for his exceptional service as a Federal Employee. Dr. Leggio received his award in a ceremony on November 14, 2024. The Flemming Awards are managed by the George Washington University’s Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and recipients include many notable figures… [Read More]
Hot Off the Press
Hippocampal output suppresses orbitofrontal cortex schema cell formation
Hot Off the Press – August 21, 2025 Published in Nature Neuroscience by Wenhui Zong and Geoffrey Schoenbaum, et al. of the NIDA IRP Behavioral Neurophysiology Neuroscience Section. Summary The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and hippocampus (HC) are both thought to contribute to the construction of cognitive maps and their generalization into schemas, yet the nature… [Read More]
Reviews To Read
Morphinan Alkaloids and Their Transformations: A Historical Perspective of a Century of Opioid Research in Hungary
Reviews To Read – July 2025. Published in International Journal of Molecular Sciences with contributions by Kenner Rice of the NIDA IRP Drug Design and Synthesis Section. The word opium derives from the ancient Greek word ὄπιον (ópion) for the juice of any plant, but today means the air-dried seed capsule latex of Papaver somniferum. Alkaloid… [Read More]
Featured Papers
Distinct Amygdala Neuronal Populations Control Opioid Use and Withdrawal in Mice.
Featured Paper of the Month – March 2026
Published in Biological Psychiatry by Lucas Silva Tortorelli and Leandro Vendruscolo et al. of the NIDA IRP Stress and Addiction Neuroscience Unit.
We used in situ hybridization to characterize the expression of μ opioid receptor (MOR) (Oprm1), and we used behavioral and molecular approaches to assess the functional role of these CeA neuronal populations in opioid-dependent mice.
