Geith Maal-Bared, Mandy Yee, Erika K Harding, Martha Ghebreselassie, Michael Bergamini, Roxanne Choy, Ethan Kim, Stephanie Di Vito, Maryam Patel, Mohammadreza Amirzadeh, Taryn E Grieder, Brenda L Coles, James I Nagy, Robert P Bonin, Hendrik W Steenland, Derek van der Kooy
Drug dependence is characterized by a switch in motivation wherein a positively reinforcing substance can become negatively reinforcing. Put differently, drug use can transform from a form of pleasure-seeking to a form of relief-seeking. Ventral tegmental area (VTA) GABA neurons form an anatomical point of divergence between two double dissociable pathways that have been shown to be functionally implicated and necessary for these respective motivations to seek drugs. The tegmental pedunculopontine nucleus (TPP) is necessary for opiate conditioned place preferences (CPP) in previously drug-naïve rats and mice, whereas dopaminergic (DA) transmission in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) is necessary for opiate CPP in opiate-dependent and withdrawn (ODW) rats and mice...
April 28, 2024: European Journal of Neuroscience