Low frequency deep brain stimulation of nucleus accumbens shell neuronal subpopulations attenuates cocaine seeking selectively in male rats.
Sarah E Swinford-JacksonMatthew T RichPhillip J HuffmanMelissa C KnouseArthur S ThomasSharvari MankameSamantha J WorobeyR Christopher PiercePublished in: Addiction neuroscience (2023)
The present study examined the effect of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in the nucleus accumbens shell on cocaine seeking and neuronal plasticity in rats. Electrical DBS of the accumbens shell attenuated cocaine primed reinstatement across a range of frequencies as low as 12 Hz in male rats. Nucleus accumbens medium spiny neurons (MSNs) can be differentiated by expression of dopamine D1 receptors (D1DRs) or D2DRs. Low-frequency optogenetic-DBS in D1DR- or D2DR-containing neurons attenuated cocaine seeking in male but not female rats. In slice electrophysiology experiments, 12 Hz electrical stimulation evoked long term potentiation (LTP) in D1DR-MSNs and D2DR-MSNs from cocaine naive male and female rats. However, in cocaine-experienced rats, electrical and optical DBS only elicited LTP in D2DR-MSNs from male rats. These results suggest that low frequency DBS in the nucleus accumbens shell effectively, but sex-specifically, suppresses cocaine seeking, which may be associated with the reversal of synaptic plasticity deficits in D2DR-MSNs.
Keyphrases
- deep brain stimulation
- parkinson disease
- editorial comment
- obsessive compulsive disorder
- prefrontal cortex
- mental health
- spinal cord
- spinal cord injury
- magnetic resonance imaging
- traumatic brain injury
- high resolution
- signaling pathway
- cerebral ischemia
- computed tomography
- mass spectrometry
- long non coding rna
- binding protein