Microglia sculpt dopamine receptor-mediated adolescent behaviors in a social experience dependent manner

The role of oxytocin receptors in social conditioned place preference.

Rats with region-specific OXTR knockdown failed to establish socially-conditioned place preference, suggesting OXTRs within the VTA, NAc, and LS are independently needed to drive the reinforcing effect of social interaction.

Cocaine disrupts stress resilience through state-dependent dopaminergic mechanisms in the nucleus accumbens.

BACKGROUND Depression and substance use disorders frequently co-occur, yet it remains unclear whether similar depression-related behaviors reflect a common underlying neural state. Cocaine use is associated with worsening depressive symptoms, suggesting that drug exposure may interact with pre-existing behavioral state...

The VGLUT3-p.T8I Mutation Alters Striatal Acetylcholine Dynamics in Response to Social Stressors and Drives Selective Social Avoidance in Male Mice

It is hypothesized that p.T8I disrupts NAc ACh dynamics and affects social avoidance following social defeat and promotes selective social avoidance toward aggressors and elevated anxiety after CSDS, highlighting a potential cholinergic mechanism underlying stress-induced social avoidance with broader relevance to psyc...

Escalating demand for learning during adolescence impairs social interaction by hyperactivating midbrain dopamine neurons in young adulthood male mice.

Chronic stress during adolescence is a major risk factor for adult psychiatric disorders, yet the long-term impact of learning-related aversive stress remains poorly understood. This study established an mice model of learning demand stress by escalating the fixed ratio (FR) number of escape responses to foot shocks in...

Lateral habenula hyperactivity and network dysfunction underpin stress-induced depressive-like behaviors in mice.

OBJECTIVE The lateral habenula (LHb) is a critical hub for encoding aversive signals and regulating negative motivation in depression, yet the systemic alterations in functional connectivity and topological architecture of LHb-centered whole-brain networks induced by chronic stress remain unclear. METHODS This study...

EARLY-LIFE STRESS INDUCES SEXUALLY DIMORPHIC BRAIN AGING VIA MESOLIMBIC ALTERATIONS AND FRONTO-STRIATAL DYSFUNCTION