ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2013
Selective presynaptic enhancement of the prefrontal cortex to nucleus accumbens pathway by cocaine.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 66 papers.
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Who cites it
66 citing papers in PubMed, 103 citations in OpenAlex.
- In-dwelling microfluidic device for precise and reliable intranasal drug delivery during freely moving behavior.Lab animal · 2026Article
- Transcriptional regulation of ventral hippocampus-nucleus accumbens circuit excitability drives cocaine seeking.Science advances · 2026Article
- Regional heterogeneity of striatal cholinergic interneurons: setting the stage for diverse behavioral repertoires.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2026Review
- Distinct transmission sites within a synapse for strengthening and homeostasis.Science advances · 2025Article
- The ion channel TRPA1 is a modulator of the cocaine reward circuit in the nucleus accumbens.Molecular psychiatry · 2024Article
- Histone H3 dopaminylation in nucleus accumbens, but not medial prefrontal cortex, contributes to cocaine-seeking following prolonged abstinence.Molecular and cellular neurosciences · 2023Article
- Excitatory Projections from the Prefrontal Cortex to Nucleus Accumbens Core D1-MSNs and κ Opioid Receptor Modulate Itch-Related Scratching Behaviors.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2023Article
- Studying Synaptic Connectivity and Strength with Optogenetics and Patch-Clamp Electrophysiology.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Cocaine induces input and cell-type-specific synaptic plasticity in ventral pallidum-projecting nucleus accumbens medium spiny neurons.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2022Article
- Article
- Fos-expressing neuronal ensembles in rat infralimbic cortex encode initial and maintained oxycodone seeking in rats.Addiction biology · 2022Article
- Profiling prefrontal cortex protein expression in rats exhibiting an incubation of cocaine craving following short-access self-administration procedures.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- Cocaine-induced projection-specific and cell type-specific adaptations in the nucleus accumbens.Molecular psychiatry · 2022Review
- Cocaine-induced neural adaptations in the lateral hypothalamic melanin-concentrating hormone neurons and the role in regulating rapid eye movement sleep after withdrawal.Molecular psychiatry · 2021Article
- AMPA and NMDA Receptor Trafficking at Cocaine-Generated Synapses.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2021Article
- Cocaine Triggers Astrocyte-Mediated Synaptogenesis.Biological psychiatry · 2021Article
- Nucleus accumbens fast-spiking interneurons in motivational and addictive behaviors.Molecular psychiatry · 2021Review
- Psychostimulant-Induced Adaptations in Nucleus Accumbens Glutamatergic Transmission.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in medicine · 2020Review
- Cortical and Thalamic Interaction with Amygdala-to-Accumbens Synapses.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2020Article
- Sex and region-specific effects of high fat diet on PNNs in obesity susceptible rats.Physiology & behavior · 2020Article
6 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The nucleus accumbens (NAc) regulates motivated behavior by, in part, processing excitatory synaptic projections from several brain regions. Among these regions, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and basolateral amygdala, convey executive control and affective states, respectively. Whereas glutamatergic synaptic transmission within the NAc has been recognized as a primary cellular target for cocaine and other drugs of abuse to induce addiction-related pathophysiological motivational states, the understanding has been thus far limited to drug-induced postsynaptic alterations. It remains elusive whether exposure to cocaine or other drugs of abuse influences presynaptic functions of these excitatory projections, and if so, in which projection pathways. Using optogenetic methods combined with biophysical assays, we demonstrate that the presynaptic release probability (Pr) of the PFC-to-NAc synapses was enhanced after short-term withdrawal (1 d) and long-term (45 d) withdrawal from either noncontingent (i.p. injection) or contingent (self-administration) exposure to cocaine. After long-term withdrawal of contingent drug exposure, the Pr was higher compared with i.p. injected rats. In contrast, within the basolateral amygdala afferents, presynaptic Pr was not significantly altered in any of these experimental conditions. Thus, cocaine-induced procedure- and pathway-specific presynaptic enhancement of excitatory synaptic transmission in the NAc. These results, together with previous findings of cocaine-induced postsynaptic enhancement, suggest an increased PFC-to-NAc shell glutamatergic synaptic transmission after withdrawal from exposure to cocaine. This presynaptic alteration may interact with other cocaine-induced cellular adaptations to shift the functional output of NAc neurons, contributing to the addictive emotional and motivational state.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.