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.
Featured Paper of the Month
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.
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.
A ketogenic diet reduces hepatic alcohol metabolism and alcohol consumption in rats
Featured Paper of the Month – August 2026
Published in Neuropsychopharmacology by Sophie Elvig, Adrienne McGinn, and Leandro Vendruscolo, et al. of the NIDA/NIAAA Stress and Addiction Neuroscience Unit.
Findings from this study suggest that a ketogenic diet (a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet) changes the way the body processes alcohol.
Brain CB2 receptor: a new target in medication development for treating opioid use disorder in rodents
Featured Paper of the Month – July 2026
Published in Molecular Psychiatry by Omar Soler-Cedeño and Zheng-Xiong Xi, et al. of the NIDA IRP Addiction Biology Unit.
This study tested a novel compound, MRI-2594, to determine whether it could reduce opioid use and relapse-related behaviors in rats and mice.
Potentiation of fentanyl-induced respiratory depression by alcohol is not fully reversed by naloxone
Featured Paper of the Month – June 2026
Published in JCI Insight by Lyndsay Hastings*, Emma Frye*, Renata Marchette and George Koob of the NIDA IRP Neurobiology of Addiction Section.
In this study, we found that combining fentanyl and alcohol led to reductions in minute ventilation and severe apnea that were not fully reversed by naloxone.
Chronic delivery of buprenorphine during abstinence decreases incubation of heroin seeking and neuronal activation in medial prefrontal cortex and striatum in male and female rats
Featured Paper of the Month – May 2026
Published in JAMA Network Open by Xiang Xiao and Yihong Yang et al. of the NIDA IRP Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy Section.
Buprenorphine is an FDA-approved medication for opioid addiction, but the brain regions underlying its therapeutic effects are unknown. In this study, we tested whether chronic buprenorphine reduces the time-dependent increase (“incubation”) in heroin seeking during abstinence.
Modification of Brain Connectome on Association Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Development of Mental Disorders in Preadolescence
Featured Paper of the Month – April 2026 Published in JAMA Network Open by Xiang Xiao and Yihong Yang et al. of the NIDA IRP Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy Section. In this study, we addressed the question of whether a brain marker moderates the association between childhood adversity and psychiatric disorders during the transition to adolescence.
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.
Latent Classes of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Adult Substance-use Problems and Psychosocial Outcomes: Complex and Heterogeneous Associations.
Featured Paper of the Month – February 2026
Published in International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction by Emily Herberholz, Rachel Wolchok an David Epstein, et al. of the NIDA IRP Real-world Assessment, Prediction, and Treatment Section.
In this paper, we first showed that we could categorize people by specific patterns/types of ACE exposure, providing a more informative summary than the older approach of just tallying up each person’s total number of types of ACEs. Then we showed that even though ACE exposure can predict later SUD symptoms to a statistically significant degree in people who use alcohol or other drugs, the predictions are too imprecise for case-by-case decision-making
