Cocaine-Induced Structural Plasticity in Input Regions to Distinct Cell Types in Nucleus Accumbens.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is a brain region implicated in pathological motivated behaviors such as drug addiction and is composed predominantly of two discrete populations of neurons, dopamine receptor-1- and dopamine receptor-2-expressing medium spiny neurons (D1-MSNs and D2-MSNs, respectively). It is unclear whether these populations receive inputs from different brain areas and whether input regions to these cell types undergo distinct structural adaptations in response to the administration of addictive drugs such as cocaine.

Methods

Using a modified rabies virus-mediated tracing method, we created a comprehensive brain-wide monosynaptic input map to NAc D1- and D2-MSNs. Next, we analyzed nearly 2000 dendrites and 125,000 spines of neurons across four input

SUBMITTER: Barrientos C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8169057 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature