The Role of the Lateral Habenula Circuitries in Alcohol Use Disorders

Nicotine modulation of the lateral habenula/ventral tegmental area circuit dynamics: An electrophysiological study in rats

“…Moreover, in line with these observations, cocaine-induced LHb activation mediates CPA (Jhou et al, 2013;W. Zuo et al, 2013) and alcohol-induced LHb activation mediates condition taste aversion (Glover et al, 2016;Tandon et al, 2017) that is reversed by LHb lesion (Shiwalkar et al, 2019). The nicotine aversion conveyed by LHb would be dependent on halting DA latVTA neurons projecting to NAc and mediating reward by the LHb-RMTg-VTA circuitry, and directly activating LHb-mVTA neurons, mediating aversion and projecting to the prefrontal cortex (Stephan Lammel et al, 2012;Stamatakis & Stuber, 2012) (see Fig.…”

“…Different drugs of abuse known to induce aversive effects such as cocaine (Good et al, 2013;Jhou et al, 2013;W. Zuo, Chen, Wang, & Ye, 2013), alcohol (Wanhong Zuo et al, 2017) and nicotine (W. Zuo et al, 2016) increase LHb neuronal activity in vitro being part of the brain circuity mediating CPA (Jhou et al, 2013;Wanhong Zuo et al, 2017) and condition taste aversion (CTA) (Glover, McDougle, Siegel, Jhou, & Chandler, 2016;Tandon, Keefe, & Taha, 2017) mediated by alcohol (Shiwalkar, Zuo, Bekker, & Ye, 2019). Moreover, acute and chronic nicotine-induced anxiety-like behavior is reversed by LHb lesion (Casarrubea et al, 2015).…”

Changes in Affective Behavior and Oxidative Stress after Binge Alcohol in Male and Female Rats

“…However, recent studies have suggested that many other brain regions are involved in alcohol intake and the negative effects of withdrawal. Accumulating evidence suggests that the lateral habenula (LHb), an epithalamic structure that connects the forebrain with the midbrain, may play a crucial role [ 68 , 69 ]. Several preclinical studies suggest that acute and repeated alcohol exposure increases the strength of excitatory synapses and excitability of LHb neurons, which is concomitant with the affective psychiatric behaviors occurring during alcohol withdrawal [ 70 ] Besides providing reducing equivalents for maintaining oxidant homeostasis, GSH plays a role in intra- and intercellular signaling in the brain [ 71 ].…”