News Main

Nucleus Accumbens Drd1-Expressing Neurons Control Aggression Self-Administration and Aggression Seeking in Mice.

Featured Paper of the Month – July 2019
Published in The Journal of Neuroscience by Golden, Sam A; Jin, Michelle; Heins, Conor; Venniro, Marco; Michaelides, Michael; Shaham, Yavin

Aggression is often comorbid with neuropsychiatric diseases, including drug addiction. One form, appetitive aggression, exhibits symptomatology that mimics that of drug addiction and is hypothesized to be due to dysregulation of addiction-related reward circuits. However, our mechanistic understanding of the circuitry modulating appetitive operant aggression is limited…

Incubation of Cocaine Craving After Intermittent-Access Self-administration: Sex Differences and Estrous Cycle.

Featured Paper of the Month – June 2019
Published in Biological Psychiatry by Nicolas, Celine; Russell, Trinity I; Pierce, Anne F; Maldera, Steeve; Holley, Amanda; You, Zhi-Bing; McCarthy, Margaret M; Shaham, Yavin; Ikemoto, Satoshi

We examined whether binge cocaine intake has an impact on drug craving after abstinence and whether it has differential effects between male and female rats. We used an intermittent access cocaine self-administration to mimic binge intake and compare it with a continuous access self-administration. The intermittent access procedure caused stronger cocaine craving following abstinence than the continuous access procedure, and this effect was greater in female than male rats…

Christopher Blackwood selected for Society for Neuroscience Neuroscience Scholars Program

Christopher Blackwood has been selected into the Society for Neuroscience (SFN) Neuroscience Scholars Program (NSP) 2019. The two-year training program supports neuroscience trainees’ scientific and professional growth through mentoring, networking, and professional skills development and works toward the Society’s objectives of supporting the professional development of scientists from all backgrounds and increasing diversity in the… [Read More]

NIDA IRP Opioid Symposium

May 22, 2019 8:50am – 5pm Biomedical Research Center – Atrium Johns Hopkins Bayview Campus 251 Bayview Blvd. Baltumore, MD 21224 Organizers: Yavin Shaham, David Epstein, Kenzie Preston, Amy Newman The one-day symposium will feature intramural and extramural speakers who will discuss recent advances in research and treatment for opioid use disorders. Schedule Amy Newman… [Read More]

Best Wishes to Our 2019 Postbac Graduates

Congratulations and best wishes to the 2019 NIDA IRP Postbaccalaureate graduates! Of the 29 graduates (largest NIDA class ever), 12 are heading to PhD programs, 1 to a PharmD program, 6 will be going to medical school, 3 to MD/PhD programs, 3 to Master’s programs, 1 to Physician Assistant school, 1 plans to work in… [Read More]

Neuron-Specific Genome Modification in the Adult Rat Brain Using CRISPR-Cas9 Transgenic Rats.

Hot Off the Press – May 10, 2019. Cell-specific CRISPR/Cas9 in the adult rat brain. Microscopic images of the midbrain of a transgenic rat that selectively expresses Cas9 in dopamine neurons. On the left side, control gRNAs were delivered to cells in the midbrain using a virus (green). On the right side, gRNAs to a… [Read More]

Compulsive drug use is associated with imbalance of orbitofrontal- and prelimbic-striatal circuits in punishment-resistant individuals

Hot Off the Press – May 6, 2019. We report that in a methamphetamine self-administration experiment, all rats show changes in the balance between “go” and “stop” brain circuits, however after foot shock punishment, behavior in the addictive subgroup is strongly correlated with the change in the balance of “go” and “stop” circuits, while the… [Read More]

Expectancy-Related Changes in Dopaminergic Error Signals Are Impaired by Cocaine Self-Administration.

Featured Paper of the Month – May 2019
Published in Neuron by Takahashi, Yuji K; Stalnaker, Thomas A; Marrero-Garcia, Yasmin; Rada, Ray M; Schoenbaum, Geoffrey

Addiction is a disorder of behavioral control and learning. While this may reflect pre-existing propensities, drug use also clearly contributes by causing changes in outcome processing in prefrontal and striatal regions. This altered processing is associated with behavioral deficits, including changes in learning. These areas provide critical input to midbrain dopamine neurons regarding expected outcomes, suggesting that effects on learning may result from changes in dopaminergic error signaling…

Marco Venniro wins NIH Matilda White Riley Behavioral and Social Sciences Award for Early Stage Investigators

Marco Venniro has been chosen the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) as a winner in its Early Stage Investigator paper competition. Marco is a postdoctoral fellow at the NIDA IRP and he was honored for his paper Volitional social interaction prevents drug addiction in rat models, published in Nature Neuroscience. Marco… [Read More]

Oxytocin blocks enhanced motivation for alcohol in alcohol dependence and blocks alcohol effects on GABAergic transmission in the central amygdala.

Hot Off the Press – April 22, 2019. The neuropeptide oxytocin blocks enhanced drinking in alcohol-dependent rats, according to a study published April 16 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology led by Drs. Tunstall, Koob and Vendruscolo of the National Institutes of Health, and Drs. Kirson and Roberto of The Scripps Research Institute. Targeting the… [Read More]