Activation of CGRP neurons in the parabrachial nucleus suppresses addictive behavior.

ABSTRACT: Punishment such as electric shock or physical discipline employs a mixture of physical pain and emotional distress to induce behavior modification. However, a neural circuit that produces behavior modification by selectively focusing the emotional component, while bypassing the pain typically induced by peripheral nociceptor activation, is not well studied. Here, we show that genetically silencing the activity of neurons expressing calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) in the parabrachial nucleus blocks the suppression of addictive-like behavior induced by footshock. Furthermore, activating CGRP neurons suppresses not only addictive behavior induced by self-stimulating dopamine neurons but also behavior resulting from self-administering cocaine, without eliciting nocifensive reactions. Mo

SUBMITTER: Pyeon GH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11181112 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature