Intermittent nicotine exposure upregulates nAChRs in VTA dopamine neurons and sensitises locomotor responding to the drug

Intermittent nicotine exposure upregulates nAChRs in VTA dopamine neurons and sensitizes locomotor responding to the drug Abbreviated Title: nAChR upregulation and locomotor sensitization

Periaqueductal efferents to dopamine and GABA neurons of the VTA

Neurons in the periaqueductal gray (PAG) modulate threat responses and nociception. Activity in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) on the other hand can cause reinforcement and aversion. While in many situations these behaviors are related, the anatomical substrate of a crosstalk between the PAG and VTA remains poorly understood. Here we describe the anatomical and electrophysiological organizati...

Menthol Alone Upregulates Midbrain nAChRs, Alters nAChR Subtype Stoichiometry, Alters Dopamine Neuron Firing Frequency, and Prevents Nicotine Reward.

Upregulation of β2 subunit-containing (β2*) nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) is implicated in several aspects of nicotine addiction, and menthol cigarette smokers tend to upregulate β2* nAChRs more than nonmenthol cigarette smokers. We investigated the effect of long-term menthol alone on midbrain neurons containing nAChRs. In midbrain dopaminergic (DA) neurons from mice containing fl...

Withdrawal from intermittent ethanol exposure increases probability of burst firing in VTA neurons in vitro.

Changing the activity of ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine neurons from pacemaker to burst firing is hypothesized to increase the salience of stimuli, such as an unexpected reward, and likely contributes to withdrawal-associated drug-seeking behavior. Accordingly, pharmacological, behavioral, and electrophysiological data suggest an important role of the VTA in mediating alcohol-dependent b...

Nicotine potentiation of excitatory inputs to ventral tegmental area dopamine neurons.

Drug-induced changes in synaptic strength are hypothesized to contribute to appetitive behavior and addiction. Nicotine, the major addictive substance in tobacco, activates nicotinic receptors (nAChRs) to initiate a series of adaptive changes at the cellular and circuit levels in brain, particularly the ventral tegmental area (VTA). Our laboratory previously reported that nicotine facilitates i...