Neuroscience
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Cocaine abstinence and withdrawal are linked to relapse and heightened anxiety. While L-type calcium channels (LTCCs) have been associated with cocaine use disorders in humans and drug-seeking in rodents, their role in mood-related symptoms during cocaine abstinence remains unclear. We addressed this by investigating the ability of LTCC blockade with isradipine to alter the mood-related behavioral phenotypes induced by cocaine abstinence. ⋯ In contrast 1.2 mg/kg, i.p. isradipine decreased immobility time in both cocaine and saline abstinent female and male rats. In summary, isradipine administration reversed the anxiogenic and increased the FST immobility time associated with cocaine abstinence in a dose and sex-dependent manner. The data underscore the importance of further investigation of LTCC mechanisms and their therapeutic potential for mood disorders associated with cocaine use disorder.
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Repetitive motor behaviors are common in both neurotypical and developmentally delayed populations. The neural mechanisms underlying these behaviors are not fully understood, but cortical-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical (CBGTC) circuitry is often implicated. Peromyscus maniculatus bairdii (deer mice), which exhibit spontaneous repetitive actions analogous to human motor stereotypies and obsessive-compulsive behaviors, serve as an effective model for studying repetitive behaviors. ⋯ These findings suggest that DRD2 expression in the DLS may modulate repetitive behaviors in deer mice, highlighting the role of dopaminergic pathways within CBGTC circuitry. However, limitations such as small sample size and lack of protein-level verification require further investigation. Future research should explore translational implications of DRD2 modulation and analyze additional brain regions.
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Schizophrenia (SCHZ), bipolar disorder (BD), and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) share clinical symptoms and risk genes, but the shared and distinct neural dynamic mechanisms at adults remain inadequately understood. Degree is a fundamental and important graph measure in network neuroscience, and we here used eigenmodes to extend the degree to hierarchical levels and compared the resting-state brain networks of three disorders and healthy controls (HC) at adults (age: 21-50 years old). First, compared to HC, SCHZ and BD patients exhibited substantially overlapped abnormalities in brain networks, wherein BD patients displayed more significant alterations. ⋯ Furthermore, three disorders shared associations of brain network abnormalities with dopamine receptors/transporters. Finally, the alterations in SCHZ and BD patients were associated with cellular localization and transport, as well as abnormal social behavior and communication, while ADHD patients were associated with energy production and transport. These findings provided a deep understanding of the shared and distinct neuropathology of three disorders and facilitated a more precise differentiation for them.
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The subiculum is the main output part of the hippocampal formation and is important for learning and memory. According to connection studies, the distal and proximal regions of the subiculum project to brain regions related to spatial and emotional memories, respectively. Our previous morphological studies indicated that the ventral subiculum (vSub) consists of two regions, the distal subiculum (Sub1) and the proximal subiculum (Sub2), whereas the dorsal subiculum (dSub) seems to comprise only one region (Sub1). ⋯ To avoid confusion, we propose dividing the subiculum into Sub1 and Sub2 by immunoreactivities for subicular markers, instead of a rough division into the distal/proximal parts or the dorsal/ventral parts. Furthermore, we confirmed that Sub2 projected to the lateral septum. This finding is consistent with the fact that the proximal-ventral subiculum are involved in emotional memory.