Featured Paper of the Month – December 2018. Astrocytes are ubiquitous CNS cells that support tissue homeostasis through ion buffering, neurotransmitter recycling, and regulation of CNS vasculature. Yet, despite the essential functional roles they fill, very little is known about the physiology of astrocytes in the ventral midbrain, a region that houses dopamine-releasing neurons and… [Read More]
Selective Brain Distribution and Distinctive Synaptic Architecture of Dual Glutamatergic-GABAergic Neurons
Featured Paper of the Month – Novermber 2018. Root and Zhang et al. (from Dr. Morales’ lab) identified throughout the brain concentrated populations of glutamate and GABA co-transmitting neurons in ventral tegmental area, entopeduncular, and supramammillary nuclei. Single axon terminals from these neurons form a common synaptic architecture that co-transmit glutamate and GABA from distinct… [Read More]
The novel ghrelin receptor inverse agonist PF-5190457 administered with alcohol: preclinical safety experiments and a phase 1b human laboratory study.
Featured Paper of the Month – October 2018. Understanding the neurobiological substrates of excessive alcohol consumption may substantially facilitate efforts to develop better treatments. The cross-talk between the gastrointestinal and central nervous systems, often referred to as the gut–brain axis, is a promising yet underexplored domain in this regard. Ghrelin is a hormone primarily produced… [Read More]
Selective Activation of Striatal NGF-TrkA/p75NTR/ MAPK Intracellular Signaling in Rats That Show Suppression of Methamphetamine Intake 30 Days following Drug Abstinence
Featured Paper of the Month – September 2018. Methamphetamine addiction is a public health threat throughout the world. Investigators in Dr. Cadet’s laboratory in the intramural program have developed a rat model of methamphetamine addiction that includes one of the psychiatric criteria used to make that diagnosis in humans. In that model, they used footshocks… [Read More]
Role of Anterior Intralaminar Nuclei of Thalamus Projections to Dorsomedial Striatum in Incubation of Methamphetamine Craving.
Featured Paper of the Month – August 2018. Methamphetamine seeking progressively increases after withdrawal from drug self-administration, a phenomenon termed incubation of methamphetamine craving. We previously found that D1R-mediated dopamine transmission in dorsomedial striatum plays a critical role in this incubation phenomenon. Here, we used neuroanatomical and neuropharmacological methods in rats to demonstrate that an… [Read More]
Orbitofrontal neurons signal sensory associations underlying model-based inference in a sensory preconditioning task.
Featured Paper of the Month – July 2018. Using knowledge of the structure of the world to infer value is at the heart of model-based reasoning and relies on a circuit that includes the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Some accounts link this to the representation of biological significance or value by neurons in OFC, while other models focus on the representation of… [Read More]
Delta Rhythm Orchestrates the Neural Activity Underlying the Resting State BOLD Signal via Phase–amplitude Coupling.
Featured Paper of the Month – June 2018. Our brains always work, consciously or unconsciously. Functional connectivity MRI has identified so-called resting state brain networks (e.g. default mode network). Aberrant activity in such networks is implicated in neurological and psychiatric disorders. This work applies simultaneous electrophysiological recording and functional MRI to investigate the neurophysiological basis… [Read More]
Fentanyl-Induced Brain Hypoxia Triggers Brain Hyperglycemia and Biphasic Changes in Brain Temperature.
Featured Paper of the Month – May 2018. Fentanyl is a potent synthetic opioid used clinically to treat pain and as a general anesthetic. Recently, fentanyl has emerged as a recreational drug and its overdose has been linked to numerous deaths in the US. To better understand how fentanyl affects the brain, we used electrochemical… [Read More]
Lateral Preoptic Control of the Lateral Habenula through Convergent Glutamate and GABA Transmission.
Featured Paper of the Month – April 2018. The lateral habenula (LHb) is a brain structure that participates in cognitive and emotional processing and has been implicated in several mental disorders. Although one of the largest inputs to the LHb originates in the lateral preoptic area (LPO), little is known about how the LPO participates… [Read More]
Exogenous ghrelin administration increases alcohol self-administration and modulates brain functional activity in heavy-drinking alcohol-dependent individuals.
Featured Paper of the Month – March 2018. Understanding the neurobiological substrates of excessive alcohol consumption may substantially facilitate efforts to develop better treatments. The cross-talk between the gastrointestinal and central nervous systems, often referred to as the gut–brain axis, is a promising yet underexplored domain in this regard. Ghrelin is a hormone primarily produced… [Read More]
