ArticleBiological psychiatry2025
A Cocaine-Activated Ensemble Exerts Increased Control Over Behavior While Decreasing in Size.
Article in Biological psychiatry, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed.
- Characterization of Neuronal Ensembles in a Model of Dual-Reward Conditioned Place Preference.eNeuro · 2026Article
- CRISPR inhibition of activity-dependent Arc expression in the adult mouse brain has limited effects on plasticity in visual cortex and nucleus accumbens.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Neurobehavioral Effects of "Dry Hit" Nicotine E-Cigarette Vapor Inhalation in Adolescent Wistar Rats.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Dentate Gyrus Engrams in Fear and Reward: Mechanistic Principles, Critical Gaps, and Paths to Translation.Journal of neurochemistry · 2026Review
- Whole-brain cFos mapping reveals the paraventricular thalamus as a key node for stress-enhanced fear learning.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Pairing extinction training with vagus nerve stimulation reduces drug-seeking by altering activity in afferents to the medial prefrontal cortex.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Pairing extinction training with vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) reduces drug-seeking by altering activity in afferents to the medial prefrontal cortex.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Drug-Related Engrams and Their Role in the Persistence and Recurrence of Drug-Related Behaviors.Hippocampus · 2025Review
- Genetic Mechanisms of Experience-Dependent Neuronal Plasticity.Annual review of genetics · 2025Review
- Cocaine-context memories are transcriptionally encoded in nucleus accumbens Arc ensembles.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Prefrontal cortex excitatory neurons show distinct response to heroin-associated cue and social stimulus after prolonged heroin abstinence in mice.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Article
- Cocaine-induced gene regulation in D1 and D2 neuronal ensembles of the nucleus accumbens.Communications biology · 2025Article
- The biology of addiction.Science signaling · 2025Review
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Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSubstance use disorder is characterized by long-lasting changes in reward-related brain regions, such as the nucleus accumbens. Previous work has shown that cocaine exposure induces plasticity in broad, genetically defined cell types in the nucleus accumbens; however, in response to a stimulus, only a small percentage of neurons are transcriptionally active-termed an ensemble. Here, we identify an Arc-expressing neuronal ensemble that has a unique trajectory of recruitment and causally controls drug self-administration after repeated, but not acute, cocaine exposure.
methodsUsing Arc-CreER
resultsRepeated cocaine exposure reduced the size of the ensemble while simultaneously increasing its control over behavior. Neurons within the repeated cocaine ensemble were hyperexcitable, and their optogenetic excitation was sufficient for reinforcement. Finally, lesioning the repeated cocaine, but not the acute cocaine, ensemble blunted cocaine self-administration. Thus, repeated cocaine exposure reduced the size of the ensemble while simultaneously increasing its contributions to drug reinforcement.
conclusionsWe showed that repeated, but not acute, cocaine exposure induced a physiologically distinct ensemble characterized by the expression of the immediate early gene Arc, which was uniquely capable of modulating reinforcement behavior.
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