ArticleNature neuroscience2014
VTA CRF neurons mediate the aversive effects of nicotine withdrawal and promote intake escalation.
Article in Nature neuroscience, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 85 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
85 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 139 citations in OpenAlex.
- Classic psychedelics and alcohol use disorders: A systematic review of human and animal studies.Addiction biology · 2022Pooled it
- Morphine and nicotine intake in high drinking in the dark mice is reduced by informatics-nominated and translationally relevant compounds.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Nicotinic Receptors in the Medial Habenula to Interpeduncular Nucleus Pathway: Modulators of Reward, Aversion and Emotion.The European journal of neuroscience · 2025Review
- The influence of stress and social defeat on neurobiological reinforcement mechanisms across reward to withdrawal in nicotine addiction.Psychopharmacology · 2025Review
- A switch in kappa opioid receptor signaling from inhibitory to excitatory induced by stress in a subset of cortically-projecting dopamine neurons.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Article
- Corticotropin-Releasing Factor in the Nucleus Accumbens Does Not Drive High Levels of Cocaine Consumption.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Drugs of abuse drive neurotransmitter plasticity that alters behavior: implications for mental health.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2025Review
- Paternal cocaine-seeking motivation defines offspring's vulnerability to addiction by down-regulating GABAergic GABRG3 in the ventral tegmental area.Translational psychiatry · 2024Article
- Neurobiology of Stress-Induced Nicotine Relapse.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Chronic Nicotine Consumption and Withdrawal Regulate Melanocortin Receptor, CRF, and CRF Receptor mRNA Levels in the Rat Brain.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- Bioelectronic Medicine: a multidisciplinary roadmap from biophysics to precision therapies.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2024Review
- Corticotropin-releasing factor-dopamine interactions in male and female macaque: Beyond the classic VTA.Synapse (New York, N.Y.) · 2024Article
- Corticotropin-releasing factor and GABA in the ventral tegmental area modulate partner preference formation in male and female prairie voles (Frontiers in neuroscience · 2024Article
- A neuronal coping mechanism linking stress-induced anxiety to motivation for reward.Science advances · 2023Article
- Article
- Understanding the habenula: A major node in circuits regulating emotion and motivation.Pharmacological research · 2023Review
- Hyperconnectivity of two separate long-range cholinergic systems contributes to the reorganization of the brain functional connectivity during nicotine withdrawal in male mice.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- Corticotropin releasing factor and drug seeking in substance use disorders: Preclinical evidence and translational limitations.Addiction neuroscience · 2022Article
- Stressed and wired: The effects of stress on the VTA circuits underlying motivated behavior.Current opinion in endocrine and metabolic research · 2022Article
25 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
22 authors at 6 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Dopaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) are well known for mediating the positive reinforcing effects of drugs of abuse. Here we identify in rodents and humans a population of VTA dopaminergic neurons expressing corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF). We provide further evidence in rodents that chronic nicotine exposure upregulates Crh mRNA (encoding CRF) in dopaminergic neurons of the posterior VTA, activates local CRF1 receptors and blocks nicotine-induced activation of transient GABAergic input to dopaminergic neurons. Local downregulation of Crh mRNA and specific pharmacological blockade of CRF1 receptors in the VTA reversed the effect of nicotine on GABAergic input to dopaminergic neurons, prevented the aversive effects of nicotine withdrawal and limited the escalation of nicotine intake. These results link the brain reward and stress systems in the same brain region to signaling of the negative motivational effects of nicotine withdrawal.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.