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]
Hot off the Press
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]
Persistent vulnerability to heroin relapse after more than one year of abstinence in rats
Hot Off the Press – July 27, 2026 Published in Neuropsychopharmacology by Rajtarun Madangopal and Bruce Hope, et al. of the NIDA IRP Neuronal Ensembles in Drug Addiction Section. Summary This study used a rat model to test the persistence of relapse vulnerability during prolonged abstinence. Cues previously associated with intravenous heroin self-administration—such as cues… [Read More]
Persistent representation of a prior schema in the orbitofrontal cortex facilitates learning of a conflicting schema
Hot Off the Press – April 16, 2026 Published in Nature Communications by Ido Maor and Geoffrey Schoenbaum, et al. of the NIDA IRP Behavioral Neurophysiology Neuroscience Section. Summary When Old Knowledge Helps Learning Something New, even When It Conflicts How does the brain use past experience to guide learning in new situations, especially when… [Read More]
Predicting individual incubation of opioid craving by whole-brain functional connectivity
Hot Off the Press – March 18, 2026 Published in PNAS by Ying Duan, Pei-Jung Tsai and Yihong Yang, et al. of the NIDA IRP Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy Section. Summary This study is a trans-branch collaboration between groups of Drs. Yihong Yang and Yavin Shaham at NIDA-IRP. Relapse driven by craving remains a challenge in… [Read More]
Cocaine chemogenetics blunts drug-seeking by synthetic physiology
Hot Off the Press – March 9, 2026 Published in Nature by Juan Gomez and Michael Michaelides et al. of the NIDA IRP Biobehavioral Imaging and Molecular Neuropsychopharmacology Section. Summary Our research team is pleased to announce the publication of our latest study in Nature, introducing a transformative synthetic biology platform designed to study and… [Read More]
VTA monosynaptic connections by local glutamate and GABA neurons and their distinct roles in behavior
Hot Off the Press – January 2026 Published in Nature Communications by Flavia Barbano and Marisela Morales et al. of the NIDA IRP Neuronal Networks Section. Summary This study demonstrates that the ventral tegmental area (VTA), a brain region central to motivation and reward, contains tightly organized local circuits that shape behavior in distinct ways…. [Read More]
