Tracing of Accumbens and Amygdala Neurons Reveals Distinct Clusters in the Compulsive Alcohol-seeking Circuit

Abstract

This research demonstrates that the neurons in the nucleus accumbens, locus coeruleus, and anterior insula that coordinate to mediate alcohol abuse behavior such as aversion-resistant alcohol intake (ARAI) are organized in segregated clusters that can each be individually targeted for potential drug therapy. Homotypic injections resulted in complete colocalization of injected fluorescent beads, while heterotypic injections resulted in complete non-colocalization of the beads. Therefore, an injection in the NAc will not disrupt AIns-LC function, and vice versa. As the AIns-NAc neurons have been shown to regulate aversion-resistant alcohol intake, this connection is ripe for drug therapy studies and has great potential for novel therapeutic interventions for compulsive alcohol seeking in humans.