INTRODUCTION Alcohol-associated cues activate both ventral and dorsal striatum in functional brain imaging studies of heavy drinkers. In rodents, alcohol-associated cues induce changes in neuronal firing frequencies and increase dopamine release in ventral striatum, but the impact of alcohol-associated cues on neuronal activity in dorsal striatum is unclear. We previously reported phasic change...

Information processing in the striatum requires the postsynaptic integration of glutamatergic and dopaminergic signals, which are then relayed to the output nuclei of the basal ganglia to influence behavior. Although cellularly homogeneous in appearance, the striatum contains several rare interneuron populations which tightly modulate striatal function. Of these, cholinergic interneurons (CINs)...

This essay will reexamine research on the relationship between human memory and addiction. paper review several studies that discussed how systems in brain are involved acquisition of behavior is learned associated with development drug addiction relapse. Additional information reveals when individuals make transition from recreational or impulsive use to compulsive abuse, which may result a ne...

Regier PS, Amemiya S, Redish AD. Hippocampus and subregions of the dorsal striatum respond differently to a behavioral strategy change on a spatial navigation task. J Neurophysiol 114: 1399–1416, 2015. First published June 18, 2015; doi:10.1152/jn.00189.2015.— Goal-directed and habit-based behaviors are driven by multiple but dissociable decision making systems involving several different brain...

The striatum is a critical structure for the control of voluntary behaviour, and striatal synaptic plasticity has been implicated in instrumental learning. As ethanol consumption can cause impairments in cognition, learning, and action selection, it is important to understand the effects of this drug on striatal function. In this study we examined the effects of ethanol on long-term synaptic pl...

Recent progress in understanding the diversity of midbrain dopamine neurons has highlighted the importance--and the challenges--of defining mammalian neuronal cell types. Although neurons may be best categorized using inclusive criteria spanning biophysical properties, wiring of inputs, wiring of outputs, and activity during behavior, linking all of these measurements to cell types within the i...