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Lateral Habenula Involvement in Impulsive Cocaine Seeking

Featured Paper of the Month – June 2017
Published in Neuropsychopharmacology by Zapata, Agustin; Hwang, Eun-Kyung; Lupica, Carl R

The lateral habenula (LHb) is a brain structure receiving inputs from limbic forebrain areas and innervating major midbrain monoaminergic nuclei. Evidence indicates LHb involvement in sleep control, reward-based decision making, avoidance of punishment, and responses to stress. Additional work has established that the LHb mediates negative feedback in response to aversive events…

2017 NIDA IRP Mentoring Award Winners

May 2017 Congratulations to the 2017 NIDA IRP Mentoring Award winners! Award recipients are (left to right): Geoffrey Schoenbaum, MD, PhD (Investigator Award); Lindsay De Biase, PhD (Postdoctoral Fellow Award); and Karran Phillips, MD (Staff Clinician Award). They were presented with plaques at the 6th annual NIDA Poster Day and Mentoring Awards Ceremony on May… [Read More]

Computational approaches to detect allosteric pathways in transmembrane molecular machines.

Reviews To Read – May 2017
Stolzenberg, Sebastian; Michino, Mayako; LeVine, Michael V; Weinstein, Harel; Shi, Lei
Biochim Biophys Acta, 1858 (7 Pt B), pp. 1652-1662, 2016, ISSN: 0006-3002 (Print); 0006-3002 (Linking).
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Functional μ-Opioid-Galanin Receptor Heteromers in the Ventral Tegmental Area.

Featured Paper of the Month – May 2017
Published in The Journal of Neuroscience by Estefania Moreno, Cesar Quiroz, William Rea, Ning-Sheng Cai, Josefa Mallol, Antoni Cortes, Carme Lluis, Enric I Canela, Vicent Casado, Sergi Ferré

The neuropeptide galanin has been shown to interact with the opioid system. More specifically, galanin counteracts the behavioral effects of the systemic administration of mu-opioid receptor (MOR) agonists. Yet the mechanism responsible for this galanin-opioid interaction has remained elusive…

Da-Ting Lin – 2016 HHS Green Champion Award

May 2017 Congratulations to Da-Ting Lin for winning a 2016 Health and Human Services (HHS) Green Champion Award! Dr. Da-Ting Lin has won this year’s award for Sustainable Acquisitions – Individual. Dr. Lin has worked diligently as an Investigator to integrate sustainable practices into his research using in vivo optical imaging methods. He has prioritized energy… [Read More]

Barry J. Hoffer awarded Honorary Doctors at the University of Helsinki

May 2017 Dr. Barry J. Hoffer, the former Scientific Director of the NIDA IRP, has been awarded an Honorary Doctors of the Faculty of Philosophy from the University of Helsinki for his lifelong work in neuropharmacology. The Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Helsinki confers distinguished persons from the fields of science, culture and… [Read More]

Dopamine transients are sufficient and necessary for acquisition of model-based associations.

Hot Off The Press – April 2017
Sharpe, Melissa J; Chang, Chun Yun; Liu, Melissa A; Batchelor, Hannah M; Mueller, Lauren E; Jones, Joshua L; Niv, Yael; Schoenbaum, Geoffrey
Nat Neurosci, 20 (5), pp. 735–742, 2017, ISSN: 1546-1726 (Electronic); 1097-6256 (Linking).
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Role of Dorsomedial Striatum Neuronal Ensembles in Incubation of Methamphetamine Craving after Voluntary Abstinence

Featured Paper of the Month – April 2017
Published in The Journal of Neuroscience by Caprioli, Daniele; Venniro, Marco; Zhang, Michelle; Bossert, Jennifer M; Warren, Brandon L; Hope, Bruce T; Shaham, Yavin

We recently developed a rat model of incubation of methamphetamine craving after choice-based voluntary abstinence. Here, we studied the role of dorsolateral striatum (DLS) and dorsomedial striatum (DMS) in this incubation. We trained rats to self-administer palatable food pellets (6 d, 6 h/d) and methamphetamine (12 d, 6 h/d)…

Circuit specificity in the inhibitory architecture of the VTA regulates cocaine-induced behavior.

Hot Off the Press! – March 2017
Edwards, Nicholas J; Tejeda, Hugo A; Pignatelli, Marco; Zhang, Shiliang; McDevitt, Ross A; Wu, Jocelyn; Bass, Caroline E; Bettler, Bernhard; Morales, Marisela; Bonci, Antonello
Nat Neurosci, 20 (3), pp. 438–448, 2017, ISSN: 1546-1726 (Electronic); 1097-6256 (Linking).
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Key role of the dopamine D4 receptor in the modulation of corticostriatal glutamatergic neurotransmission.

Featured Paper of the Month – March 2017
Published in Science Advances by Bonaventura, Jordi; Quiroz, Cesar; Cai, Ning-Sheng; Rubinstein, Marcelo; Tanda, Gianluigi; Ferre, Sergi

Polymorphic variants of the dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4) have been repeatedly associated with numerous neuropsychiatric disorders. Yet, the functional role of the D4 receptor and the functional differences of the products of DRD4 polymorphic variants remained enigmatic…