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A research team – co-led by Penn Nursing – has made a significant breakthrough in understanding the complex neural circuitry underlying reward and addiction by identifying 34 distinct subtypes of medium spiny neurons (MSNs) in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a key brain region involved in pleasure and motivation. The findings, published in the journal Scientific Reports by Nature, offer insights into the diversity of these neurons and their potential roles in substance use disorders.
People who drink heavily experience heightened pleasurable effects throughout a drinking episode, which may be what motivates them to continue drinking, and not, as is commonly believed, that they require more alcohol in order to experience these effects. So suggests a first-of-its-kind study of real-world, real-time drinking experiences and motivations of different types of drinkers just published in Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research.
“There’s no place like home,” has its roots deep in the brain. Using fiber photometry, scientists are the first to show that home evokes a surge of dopamine in mice that mimics the response to a dose of cocaine. The study demonstrates how dopamine rises rapidly in mice moved from a simple recording chamber to their home cage, but less so when they return to a cage not quite like the one they knew.
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