Ventral medial prefrontal cortex neuronal ensembles mediate context-induced relapse to heroin.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Bossert JM
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3077927 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Apr
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Ventral medial prefrontal cortex neuronal ensembles mediate context-induced relapse to heroin.
Bossert Jennifer M JM Stern Anna L AL Theberge Florence R M FR Cifani Carlo C Koya Eisuke E Hope Bruce T BT Shaham Yavin Y
Nature neuroscience 20110220 4
In a rat model of context-induced relapse to heroin, we identified sparsely distributed ventral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) neurons that were activated by the heroin-associated context. Selective pharmacogenetic inactivation of these neurons inhibited context-induced drug relapse. A small subset of ventral mPFC neurons formed neuronal ensembles that encode the learned associations between heroin reward and heroin-associated contexts; re-activation of these neuronal ensembles by drug-associat ...[more]
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