ArticleNeuropharmacology2021
Binge ethanol drinking associated with sex-dependent plasticity of neurons in the insula that project to the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis.
Article in Neuropharmacology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sex differences in insular cortex function in persistent alcohol drinking despite aversion in mice.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Gonadal Sex and Sex-Chromosome Complement Interact to Affect Ethanol Consumption in Adolescent Four Core Genotypes Mice.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Association of stress-sensitive mid-insula activity with alcohol drinking and negative affect-like behavior during abstinence in mice.Neuropharmacology · 2026Article
- Repeated cycles of binge-like ethanol consumption and abstinence alter neuropeptide mRNA in prefrontal and insular cortex, amygdala, and lateral hypothalamus of male and female C57BL/6J mice.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2025Article
- Retrieval of an Ethanol-Conditioned Taste Aversion Promotes GABAergic Plasticity in the Anterior Insular Cortex.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Neural Circuitries and Alcohol Use Disorder: Cutting Corners in the Cycle.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2025Review
- Dopamine D2 receptors in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis modulate alcohol-related behaviors.Addiction neuroscience · 2024Article
- Retrieval of an ethanol-conditioned taste aversion promotes GABAergic plasticity in the insular cortex.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Neural Activity in the Anterior Insula at Drinking Onset and Licking Relates to Compulsion-Like Alcohol Consumption.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024Article
- Forced Abstinence from Volitional Ethanol Intake Drives a Vulnerable Period of Hyperexcitability in BNST-Projecting Insular Cortex Neurons.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024Article
- Insula Dynorphin and Kappa Opioid Receptor Systems Regulate Alcohol Drinking in a Sex-Specific Manner in Mice.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2023Article
- Chronic Ethanol Exposure Modulates Periaqueductal Gray to Extended Amygdala Dopamine Circuit.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2023Article
- Sexually dimorphic role for insular perineuronal nets in aversion-resistant alcohol consumption.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Better living through understanding the insula: Why subregions can make all the difference.Neuropharmacology · 2021Review
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Modifications in brain regions that govern reward-seeking are thought to contribute to persistent behaviors that are heavily associated with alcohol-use disorder (AUD) including binge ethanol drinking. The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) is a critical node linked to both alcohol consumption and the onset, maintenance and progression of adaptive anxiety and stress-related disorders. Differences in anatomy, connectivity and receptor subpopulations, make the BNST a sexually dimorphic region. Previous work indicates that the ventral BNST (vBNST) receives input from the insular cortex (IC), a brain region involved in processing the body's internal state. This IC-vBNST projection has also been implicated in emotional and reward-seeking processes. Therefore, we examined the functional properties of vBNST-projecting, IC neurons in male and female mice that have undergone short-term ethanol exposure and abstinence using a voluntary Drinking in the Dark paradigm (DID) paired with whole-cell slice electrophysiology. First we show that IC neurons projected predominantly to the vBNST. Next, our data show that short-term ethanol exposure and abstinence enhanced excitatory synaptic strength onto vBNST-projecting, IC neurons in both sexes. However, we observed diametrically opposing modifications in excitability across sexes. In particular, short-term ethanol exposure resulted in increased intrinsic excitability of vBNST-projecting, IC neurons in females but not in males. Furthermore, in females, abstinence decreased the excitability of these same neurons. Taken together these findings show that short-term ethanol exposure, as well as the abstinence cause sex-related adaptations in BNST-projecting, IC neurons.
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