This article may help explain addiction science through research on dopamine, brain science, genetics. The source abstract begins by describing: “The rewarding effects of stimulant drugs such as methylphenidate (MP) depend crucially on how fast they raise dopamine in the brain.”
Key finding: Fast dopamine increases are uniquely associated with connectivity patterns that have relevance for the subjective experience of drug reward.
Neuropsychopharmacology • 07 Feb 2024 • Research
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This article may help explain addiction science through research on alcohol, cannabis, nicotine, dopamine. The source abstract begins by describing: “In this Opinion article, Nutt and colleagues examine the history of and current evidence for the dopamine theory of addiction.”
Key finding: These observations have implications for understanding reward and treatment responses in various addictions.
Nature Reviews Neuroscience • 15 Apr 2015 • Reviews
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This article may help explain addiction science through research on cocaine, dopamine, brain science, craving. The source abstract begins by describing: “The authors show that rostral ventral pallidum projections to the ventral tegmental area (VTA) are activated during cue-induced reinstatement of cocaine seeking, and DREADD inhibition of these projections blocks this behavior.”
Key finding: This double dissociation in ventral pallidum subregional roles in drug seeking is likely to be important for understanding the mesocorticolimbic circuits underlying reward seeking and addiction.
Nature Neuroscience • 02 Mar 2014 • Research
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This article may help explain addiction science through research on cocaine, methamphetamine, dopamine, brain science. The source abstract begins by describing: “Converging evidence indicates that both dopamine and glutamate neurotransmission within the nucleus accumbens (NAc) play a role in psychostimulant self-administration and relapse in rodent models.”
Key finding: These findings indicate that in contrast to the well-recognized mesoaccumbal dopamine system that is critical to psychostimulant reward and relapse, there is a parallel mesoaccumbal glutamatergic system that suppresses reward and psychostimulant-seeking behavior.
Neuropsychopharmacology • 26 Jun 2024 • Research
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This article may help explain addiction science through research on opioid, cocaine, dopamine, brain science. The source abstract begins by describing: “Persistent transcriptional events in ventral tegmental area (VTA) and other reward relevant brain regions contribute to enduring behavioral adaptations that characterize substance use disorder.”
Key finding: These findings establish an essential role for H3Q5dop, and its downstream transcriptional consequences, in heroin-induced functional plasticity in VTA.
Neuropsychopharmacology • 29 Jan 2022 • Research
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This article may help explain addiction science through research on cocaine, dopamine, brain science, relapse. The source abstract begins by describing: “Cocaine addiction is a significant medical and public concern.”
Key finding: These findings demonstrate that the endogenous ghrelin system plays an important role in cocaine-related addictive behaviors and suggest that manipulating and targeting this system may be viable for mitigating cocaine use disorder.
Neuropsychopharmacology • 18 Dec 2021 • Research
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This article may help explain addiction science through research on opioid, alcohol, dopamine, brain science. The source abstract begins by describing: “It is well documented that ethanol exposure alters GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid)-releasing synapses, and ethanol addiction is associated with endogenous opioid system.”
Key finding: These neuroadaptations to ethanol might contribute to early stage of addiction.
Neuropsychopharmacology • 14 Apr 2010 • Research
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This article may help explain addiction science through research on cocaine, dopamine, brain science, craving. The source abstract begins by describing: “Cocaine has actions in the peripheral nervous system that reliably precede—and thus predict—its soon-to-follow central rewarding effects.”
Key finding: These findings suggest that the conditioned peripheral effects of cocaine can contribute significantly to cocaine-induced (but not stress-induced) cocaine craving, and also suggest the cocaine cue as an important target for cue-exposure therapies for cocaine addiction.
Neuropsychopharmacology • 27 Mar 2013 • Research
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This article may help explain addiction science through research on opioid, alcohol, dopamine, brain science. The source abstract begins by describing: “The mechanisms contributing to alcohol use disorder (AUD) are complex and the orexigenic peptide ghrelin, which enhances alcohol reward, is implied as a crucial modulator.”
Key finding: Collectively, our data show that DAG attenuates alcohol-related responses in rodents, an effect opposite to that of ghrelin, and contributes towards a deeper insight into behaviors regulated by the ghrelinergic signaling pathway.
Translational Psychiatry • 04 Jul 2024 • Research
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This article may help explain addiction science through research on opioid, alcohol, dopamine, brain science. The source abstract begins by describing: “Opioid-alcohol polysubstance use is prevalent and worsens treatment outcomes.”
Key finding: Thus, alcohol alters the motivation to seek oxycodone in a sex-dependent manner and the neural circuitry engaged by cue-primed reinstatement of sucrose and oxycodone-seeking.
Scientific Reports • 06 Nov 2023 • Research
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This article may help explain addiction science through research on opioid, dopamine, brain science, withdrawal. The source abstract begins by describing: “μ-opioid receptor (MOR) was previously shown to be necessary for opiate reward, analgesia and dependence.”
Key finding: Our study demonstrates that a subpopulation of striatal direct-pathway neurons is sufficient to support opiate reward-driven behaviors and provides a new intersectional genetic approach to dissecting neurocircuit-specific gene function in vivo.
Nature Neuroscience • 12 Jan 2014 • Research
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This article may help explain addiction science through research on opioid, cocaine, dopamine, brain science. The source abstract begins by describing: “Inputs to midbrain dopamine neurons control rewarding and drug-related behaviors.”
Key finding: Collectively, our findings demonstrate notable selectivity in the inhibitory architecture of the VTA and suggest that long-range GABAergic inputs to dopamine neurons fundamentally regulate behavioral responses to cocaine.
Nature Neuroscience • 23 Jan 2017 • Research
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This article may help explain addiction science through research on nicotine, dopamine, brain science, withdrawal. The source abstract begins by describing: “Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) and dopamine (DA) are critical for stress and motivation, respectively.”
Key finding: These results link the brain reward and stress systems in the same brain region to signaling of the negative motivational effects of nicotine withdrawal.
Nature Neuroscience • 17 Nov 2014 • Research
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This article may help explain addiction science through research on dopamine, brain science, genetics, mental health. The source abstract begins by describing: “The monoamine neurotransmitter serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) exerts an inhibitory influence over motivation, but the circuits mediating this are unknown.”
Key finding: These studies support an oppositional interaction between 5-HT and DA systems in controlling motivation and goal-directed behavior, and have important implications for the development and refinement of treatment strategies for psychiatric disorders such as depression and addiction.
Neuropsychopharmacology • 12 Nov 2018 • Research
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This article may help explain addiction science through research on cocaine, dopamine, brain science, treatment. The source abstract begins by describing: “The rostromedial tegmental nucleus (RMTg) plays a crucial role in regulating reward-related behavior by exerting inhibitory control over the ventral tegmental area (VTA).”
Key finding: Ultimately, this research may pave the way for novel therapeutic interventions that restore balance in the reward system and alleviate the detrimental effects of cocaine.
Translational Psychiatry • 19 Jan 2024 • Research
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This article may help explain addiction science through research on opioid, brain science, relapse, treatment. The source abstract begins by describing: “The high rates of relapse associated with current medications used to treat opioid use disorder (OUD) necessitate research that expands our understanding of the neural mechanisms regulating opioid taking to identify molecular substrates that could be targeted…”
Key finding: These findings highlight a novel cell type-specific mechanism by which CTR signaling in the ventral striatum bidirectionally modulates voluntary opioid taking and support future studies aimed at targeting central CTR-expressing circuits to treat OUD.
Neuropsychopharmacology • 24 Jun 2023 • Research
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This article may help explain addiction science through research on opioid, dopamine, brain science, withdrawal. The source abstract begins by describing: “Dopamine (DA) neurotransmission is critical in the neurobiology of reward and aversion, but its contribution to the aversive state of opioid withdrawal remains unknown in humans.”
Key finding: In sum, we provide evidence for the contribution of increases in dorsal striatal DA to the aversive state of naloxone precipitated withdrawal in humans.
Translational Psychiatry • 01 Sept 2021 • Research
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This article may help explain addiction science through research on opioid, dopamine, brain science, withdrawal. The source abstract begins by describing: “Drug-evoked adaptations in the mesolimbic dopamine system are postulated to drive opioid abuse and addiction.”
Key finding: Maintaining continuity of chronic opioid administration may, therefore, represent a strategy to minimize iatrogenic effects on brain reward circuits.
Neuropsychopharmacology • 20 Feb 2020 • Research
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This article may help explain addiction science through research on cocaine, dopamine, brain science, genetics. The source abstract begins by describing: “Dopamine (DA) signaling is critical for movement, motivation, and addictive behavior.”
Key finding: Importantly, our results provide the first evidence that DAergic Rit2 expression differentially impacts striatal function and DA-dependent behaviors in males and females.
Neuropsychopharmacology • 05 Jul 2019 • Research
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This article may help explain addiction science through research on cocaine, dopamine, brain science, treatment. The source abstract begins by describing: “The response to drugs of abuse is affected by expectation, which is modulated in part by dopamine (DA), which encodes for a reward prediction error.”
Key finding: Our findings also document disruption of the expectation of drug effects in dopamine signaling in participants with CUD compared to non-addicted individuals.
Translational Psychiatry • 15 Feb 2019 • Research
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