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Alcohol drinking

Long-range cortical GABA neurons oppose binge drinking

Nature Neuroscience volume 28, pages 1578–1579 (2025)Cite this article

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Binge drinking is widespread, but its underlying cellular mechanisms remain unclear. A recent study identifies a sparse ensemble of GABAergic neurons in the medial orbitofrontal cortex that is activated during binge drinking. These neurons send inhibitory projections to subcortical regions to limit alcohol intake, suggesting new strategies to reduce binge drinking and protect against alcohol use disorder.

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Fig. 1: Alcohol activates an ensemble of long-range GABAergic neurons in the mOFC that limits binge drinking.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nash Family Department of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

    JunShi Wang & Paul J. Kenny

  2. Friedman Brain Institute (FBI), Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

    JunShi Wang & Paul J. Kenny

Authors
  1. JunShi Wang
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  2. Paul J. Kenny
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Correspondence to Paul J. Kenny.

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Competing interests

P.J.K. is a cofounder of Eolas Therapeutics, is a consultant for EpiVario and Exavir, and receives research funding from Eli Lilly. J.W. declares no competing interests.

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Wang, J., Kenny, P.J. Long-range cortical GABA neurons oppose binge drinking. Nat Neurosci 28, 1578–1579 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-025-02030-0

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