Chronic alcohol consumption shifts learning strategies and synaptic plasticity from hippocampus to striatum-dependent pathways.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

The hippocampus and striatum have dissociable roles in memory and are necessary for spatial and procedural/cued learning, respectively. Emotionally charged, stressful events promote the use of striatal- over hippocampus-dependent learning through the activation of the amygdala. An emerging hypothesis suggests that chronic consumption of addictive drugs similarly disrupt spatial/declarative memory while facilitating striatum-dependent associative learning. This cognitive imbalance could contribute to maintain addictive behaviors and increase the risk of relapse.

Methods

We first examined, in C57BL/6 J male mice, whether chronic alcohol consumption (CAC) and alcohol withdrawal (AW) might modulate the respective use of spatial vs. single cue-based learning strategi

SUBMITTER: Tochon L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10250670 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature