Science: the first discovery of a cortical brainstem circuit to control and predict the generation of compulsive drinking behavior

November 25, 2019 / BIOON / - -- although the use of alcohol is common in modern society, only a few people will have alcohol use disorder, that is, alcohol addiction However, scientists don't understand why some people are prone to alcohol problems while others don't Now, in a new study, researchers from shack Institute of biology and Massachusetts Institute of technology and other research institutions have found a cortical brainstem circuit that can control the drinking behavior of mice, and it can be used as a biomarker to predict the forced drinking behavior of mice in the future In the future, these findings may have a potential impact on the understanding of human alcoholism and alcohol addiction The relevant research results were published in the Science Journal on November 22, 2019, and the title of the paper is "a coral brain circuit predictions and governs comprehensive alcohol driving" The nucleus (blue) of neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex that project their axons (green) to the periaqueductal gray area The picture is from the Salk Institute "I hope this will be a landmark study, because we have (for the first time) found a brain circuit that can accurately predict which mice will have compulsive drinking behavior weeks in advance," said Kay tye, a professor at the system neurobiology Laboratory of the shack Institute of biology, the paper's co-author This study fills the gap between loop analysis and alcohol addiction research, and for the first time reveals how compulsive drinking performance occurs in the brain over time " The National Institutes of Health (NIH) defines alcohol use disorder as a chronic brain disease in which individuals are forced to drink alcohol, often with negative emotions Previous studies have focused on the brain after drinking disorder Tye's team is the first to try to find brain circuits that lead to compulsive drinking, which has not been studied before Cody siciliano, the first author of the paper and assistant professor of pharmacology at Vanderbilt University in the United States, said, "we initially tried to understand how drinking can change the brain, thus promoting the production of forced drinking In the process, we stumbled upon a surprising finding that we were actually able to predict which animals would have compulsive drinking behaviors based on the neural activity at the time of first drinking " In this new study, the researchers created a test called "binge induced compulsion task (BICT)" to explore how the susceptibility and experience of drinking interact to produce compulsive drinking in mice BICT allowed the researchers to study alcohol intake as well as alcohol intake with negative effects, such as the addition of bitterness to alcohol Through a series of tests, they observed that the mice could be divided into three groups: low drinking group, high drinking group and forced drinking group Different from the former two groups, the mice in the forced drinking group were not sensitive to the negative effects The researchers then used an imaging technique called micro endoscopic single cell resolution calcium imaging, which maps cells of interest and brain regions before, during and after drinking alcohol Specifically, they studied neuronal activity in two brain regions involved in behavioral control and response to adverse events: the medial prefrontal cortex and the periaqueductal gray matter They found that the generation of forced drinking was related to the neural communication pattern between the two brain regions, and this communication pattern was a biomarker to predict the future of forced drinking In addition, by using photogenetics, they use light to control the activity of this neural pathway By opening or closing these brain circuits, they can increase or decrease the amount of compulsive drinking "Today, by looking at the brains of mice, we have found patterns of neural activity that can predict whether they become compulsive drinkers before compulsive drinking occurs," tye said We don't know whether this brain circuit is specifically for alcohol or whether the same circuit is involved in a variety of different compulsive behaviors, such as those related to other substance abuse or natural rewards, so we need to study it " Next, the researchers plan to sequence these cortical brainstem neurons to identify targets for treatment (BIOON Com) reference: 1 Cody a siciliano et al A corporate brain circuit predictions and governs comprehensive alcool driving Science, 2019, DOI: 10.1126/science.aay1186 2 Kimberly Nixon et al Forced to drive: why some cannot stop Science, 2019, doi:10.1126/science.aaz7357 3.Brain biomarker predicts compulsive drinking in mice https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-11-brain-biomarker-compulsive.html