Striatal Mechanisms of Ethanol Seeking

描述(由申请人提供)：习惯性行为不需要明确的目标表征，但由以前与酒精奖励配对的刺激的自动反应触发。这种转变的确切时间进程对于酒精自我管理还没有定义，然而，对于工具行为是目标导向的还是习惯性的，已经有了明确的测试，可以用来确定自我管理是否是习惯性的。目前的提案试图验证这样一种假设，即长期训练后的酒精自我管理将显示出习惯性行为的特征。由于条件性线索在复发中也起着重要作用，我们还将在延长酒精自我管理训练后测试酒精预测线索的效果。本课程将探讨寻酒对背侧纹状体回路的依赖，包括线索所促进的依赖。 与公共健康有关：长期以来，人们一直假设，随着时间的推移，酗酒和吸毒成为一种习惯；这一点在我们口语化地使用“吸毒习惯”一词时很明显。因此，了解酒精自我给药从目标导向到习惯性的转变，可能会为从偶然使用酒精到成瘾的转变提供神经生物学方面的信息。这些结果将为特定神经通路在酒精自我给药中的作用提供新的信息，并增加我们对酒精摄入量背后的行为机制的理解。因此，这些实验将解决我们对酒精成瘾的神经生物学基础知识的一个重要缺乏，这将使我们能够更好地设计酒精滥用的治疗方法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Habitual behavior does not require an explicit representation of the goal, but is triggered by automatic responses to the stimuli that previously were paired with alcohol reward. The exact time course of this transition has not been defined for alcohol self-administration, however, there are well-defined tests for whether instrumental behavior is goal-directed or habitual that can be used to determine whether or not self-administration is habitual. The current proposal seeks to test the hypothesis that alcohol self-administration after extended training will display the hallmarks of a habitual behavior. As conditioned cues also play a major role in relapse, we will also test the effects of alcohol-predictive cues after extended alcohol self-administration training. The reliance of alcohol-seeking, including that promoted by cues, on dorsal striatal circuitry will be probed. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: It has long been hypothesized that alcohol- and drug-seeking becomes habitual over time; this is apparent in our colloquial use of the term `drug habit'. Therefore, understanding the transition of ethanol self-administration from goal-directed to habitual may provide information on the neurobiology that underlies the transition from casual ethanol use to addiction. These results will provide new information on the role of specific neural pathways in alcohol self-administration and increase our understanding of the behavioral mechanisms that underlie its intake. Therefore, these experiments will address an important lack in our basic knowledge of the neurobiology of alcohol addiction that will allow us to better design therapies for alcohol abuse.