Featured Paper of the Month – September 2026 Published in Nature Communications by Danni Wang and Yihong Yang, et al. of the NIDA IRP Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy Section. Researchers analyzed brain imaging data from 10,000 children and found that children whose white matter pathways involved in attention, language, and higher-level cognition appeared more advanced development for their age generally had stronger cognitive abilities and fewer attention and behavioral problems.
News Main
Brain Metabolic Correlates of Heroin Addiction Severity during Abstinence and Heroin versus Social Seeking: A PET Study in Rats.
Hot Off the Press – October 14, 2026 Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Ginevra D’Ottavio, Alana Sullivan et al. of the NIDA IRP Neurobiology of Relapse Section. Summary Researchers used a rat model to examine whether differences in heroin addiction-like behavior are linked to distinct patterns of brain metabolism during… [Read More]
Technology Resource Initiative – Paper of the Month – October 2026
Classification of psychedelics and psychoactive drugs based on brain-wide imaging of cellular c-Fos expression. Nat Comm
This study combines brain-wide imaging, cellular activity markers, and computational classification to show that psychedelics have identifiable large-scale neural signatures.
Experimenter-free pain assessment in mice using a thermal gradient ring and functional linear models.
Featured Paper of the Month – September 2026 Published in Nature Communications by Danni Wang and Yihong Yang, et al. of the NIDA IRP Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy Section. Researchers analyzed brain imaging data from 10,000 children and found that children whose white matter pathways involved in attention, language, and higher-level cognition appeared more advanced development for their age generally had stronger cognitive abilities and fewer attention and behavioral problems.
Increased encoding of aversive stimuli by lateral habenula neurons during Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol withdrawal
Hot Off the Press – October 1, 2026 Published in Nature Communications by Eun-Kyung Hwang and Carl Lupica, et al. of the NIDA IRP Electrophysiology Research Section. Summary Withdrawal from many abused drugs results in negative emotional states such as anxiety, depression, and increased aversion to some environmental stimuli. Also, avoiding these negative emotional states… [Read More]
Brain morphological pattern is associated with the presence, severity and transition of transdiagnostic psychiatric disorders in preadolescents
Hot Off the Press – September 21, 2026 Published in Nature Mental Health by Nanyu Kuang and Yihong Yang, et al. of the NIDA IRP Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy Section. Summary Researchers analyzed brain scans, cognitive performance, and measures of emotional and behavioral problems from 8,672 children ages 9–10 in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive… [Read More]
Ventral Tegmental Area Dopamine Neurons Regulated by the Parabrachial Nucleus Mediate Long-Term Aversive Memory
Hot Off the Press – September 14, 2026 Published in Biological Psychiatry by Rodrigo Osnaya-Ramirez, Huiling Wang, and Shiliang Zhang, et al. of the NIDA IRP Integrative Neuroscience Research Branch and Confocal and Electron Microscopy Core. Summary Researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse identified a brain circuit in mice that helps form long-lasting… [Read More]
A µ-opioid receptor superagonist analgesic with minimal adverse effects
Hot Off the Press – September 9, 2026 Published in Nature by Juan Gomez and Michael Michaelides, et al. of the NIDA IRP Biobehavioral Imaging and Molecular Neuropsychopharmacology Section. Summary Developing safe and effective pain medications is an ongoing challenge for human health. Agonists for the µ-opioid receptor (MOR) are essential pain medications, but their… [Read More]
Deviation in development of dorsal association tracts during preadolescence links to concurrent and future cognitive performance and transdiagnostic psychopathology.
Featured Paper of the Month – September 2026 Published in Nature Communications by Danni Wang and Yihong Yang, et al. of the NIDA IRP Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy Section. Researchers analyzed brain imaging data from 10,000 children and found that children whose white matter pathways involved in attention, language, and higher-level cognition appeared more advanced development for their age generally had stronger cognitive abilities and fewer attention and behavioral problems.
Developing the Dopamine D3 Receptor (D3R) Antagonist, (R)-VK4-116, as a Non-Opioid Medication for the Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder
Reviews To Read – August 2026 Published in Medicinal Research Reviews by Amy Newman, Scientific Director of the NIDA IRP. NIDA-IRP Researchers are developing (R)-VK4-116 as a possible non-opioid medication for opioid use disorder. Unlike methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone, which act on opioid receptors, (R)-VK4-116 blocks the dopamine D3 receptor. This receptor is concentrated in… [Read More]
