| Title: |
An orbitocortical-thalamic circuit suppresses binge alcohol-drinking [preprint] |
| Authors: |
Gimenez-Gomez, Pablo; Le, Timmy; Zinter, Max; M'Angale, Peter; Duran-Laforet, Violeta; Freels, Timothy G; Pavchinskiy, Rebecca G; Molas, Susanna; Schafer, Dorothy P; Tapper, Andrew R; Thomson, Travis; Martin, Gilles E |
| Contributors: |
Brudnick Neuropsychiatric Research Institute; Neurobiology; Schafer Lab; Tapper Lab; Thomson Lab; Martin Lab; Timmy Le; Max Zinter; Rebecca Pavchinskiy |
| Source: |
bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology ; United States |
| Publication Year: |
2024 |
| Collection: |
University of Massachusetts, Medical School: eScholarship@UMMS |
| Subject Terms: |
Neuroscience; binge alcohol-drinking; medial orbitofrontal cortex |
| Description: |
This article is a preprint. Preprints are preliminary reports of work that have not been certified by peer review. ; Alcohol consumption remains a significant global health challenge, causing millions of direct and indirect deaths annually. Intriguingly, recent work has highlighted the prefrontal cortex, a major brain area that regulates inhibitory control of behaviors, whose activity becomes dysregulated upon alcohol abuse. However, whether an endogenous mechanism exists within this brain area that limits alcohol consumption is unknown. Here we identify a discrete GABAergic neuronal ensemble in the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) that is selectively recruited during binge alcohol-drinking and intoxication. Upon alcohol intoxication, this neuronal ensemble suppresses binge drinking behavior. Optogenetically silencing of this population, or its ablation, results in uncontrolled binge alcohol consumption. We find that this neuronal ensemble is specific to alcohol and is not recruited by other rewarding substances. We further show, using brain-wide analysis, that this neuronal ensemble projects widely, and that its projections specifically to the mediodorsal thalamus are responsible for regulating binge alcohol drinking. Together, these results identify a brain circuit in the mOFC that serves to protect against binge drinking by halting alcohol intake. These results provide valuable insights into the complex nature of alcohol abuse and offers potential avenues for the development of mOFC neuronal ensemble-targeted interventions. ; Neuroscience |
| Document Type: |
report |
| File Description: |
application/pdf |
| Language: |
English |
| Relation: |
bioRxiv; https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.07.03.601895; http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/53814; bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology |
| DOI: |
10.1101/2024.07.03.601895 |
| Availability: |
https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.07.03.601895; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/53814 |
| Rights: |
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. ; Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International ; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.5CF54201 |
| Database: |
BASE |