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Addiction

The ups and downs of cocaine in the NAc

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 11, page 786 (2010)Cite this article

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The NAc contains medium spiny neurons (MSNs), which project to downstream structures and are divided into two populations on the basis of their expression of D1 or D2 dopamine receptors. These two populations have antagonistic outputs.

Cocaine exposure upregulates BDNF, and its receptor neurotrophic tyrosine kinase receptor type 2 (TrkB) in the NAc, so the authors investigated whether BDNF and TrkB have distinct roles in the two types of MSN. They used strains of mice in which the expression of TrkB could be selectively and conditionally turned off in MSNs containing either D1 or D2 receptors.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Lobo, M. K. et al. Cell-type specific loss of BDNF signaling mimics optogenetic control of cocaine reward. Science 330, 385–390 (2010)

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  1. Rachel Jones
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Jones, R. The ups and downs of cocaine in the NAc. Nat Rev Neurosci 11, 786 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2956

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