Orchestrating opioid memories in thalamic circuits
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Disrupting associations between environmental cues and drug experiences holds promise for treating drug addiction. To do so, it is essential to access and manipulate the distributed neural network that maintains such memories. Here we demonstrate that the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT) orchestrates the acquisition and maintenance of opioid-associated memories through its projections to the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) and nucleus accumbens (NAc). Activation of the PVT→CeA pathway associates morphine reward to the environment, whereas transient silencing of the PVT→NAc pathway during retrieval disrupts that association and provides enduring protection against relapse. Using whole-brain activity mapping, we revealed altered distributed network activity in these non-relapsing mice, including activity in the lateral hypothalamus (LH). This finding led to the discovery that activation of the downstream NAc→LH pathway also robustly prevents relapse. Together, our results establish the PVT as a key node in the opioid-associated memories network by its projections to the CeA and NAc, and highlight the PVT→NAc→LH pathway as a promising target for treating opioid addiction.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2019; ©2019 |
| Publication date | 2019; 2019 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Keyes, Piper Caroline |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Chen, Xiaoke |
| Thesis advisor | Chen, Xiaoke |
| Thesis advisor | Giocomo, Lisa |
| Thesis advisor | Knutson, Brian |
| Thesis advisor | Malenka, Robert C |
| Degree committee member | Giocomo, Lisa |
| Degree committee member | Knutson, Brian |
| Degree committee member | Malenka, Robert C |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Neurosciences Program. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Piper Keyes. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Neurosciences Program. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2019. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2019 by Piper Caroline Keyes
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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