An orbitocortical-thalamic circuit suppresses binge alcohol-drinking.

ABSTRACT: Alcohol consumption remains a significant global health challenge, causing millions of direct and indirect deaths annually. Intriguingly, recent work has highlighted the prefrontal cortex, a major brain area that regulates inhibitory control of behaviors, whose activity becomes dysregulated upon alcohol abuse. However, whether an endogenous mechanism exists within this brain area that limits alcohol consumption is unknown. Here we identify a discrete GABAergic neuronal ensemble in the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) that is selectively recruited during binge alcohol-drinking and intoxication. Upon alcohol intoxication, this neuronal ensemble suppresses binge drinking behavior. Optogenetically silencing of this population, or its ablation, results in uncontrolled binge alcohol consumptio

SUBMITTER: Gimenez-Gomez P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11245026 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature