Journal
NEUROPHARMACOLOGY
Volume 110, Issue -, Pages 386-395Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2016.07.031
Keywords
Ethanol self-administration; Dopamine; Electrophysiology; Ventral tegmental area; Adolescence
Categories
Funding
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism [AA19801, AA23531, AA022028, AA023714]
- National Institute on Drug Abuse [DA07418, DA10154]
- UCSF Wheeler Center for the Neurobiology of Addiction
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Enhanced dopamine (DA) neurotransmission from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) to the ventral striatum is thought to drive drug self-administration and mediate positive reinforcement. We examined neuronal firing rates in slices of mouse midbrain following adolescent binge-like alcohol drinking and find that prior alcohol experience greatly enhanced the sensitivity to excitation by ethanol itself (10-50 mM) in a subset of ventral midbrain DA neurons located in the medial VTA. This enhanced response after drinking was not associated with alterations of firing rate or other measures of intrinsic excitability. In addition, the phenomenon appears to be specific to adolescent drinking, as mice that established a drinking preference only after the onset of adulthood showed no change in alcohol sensitivity. Here we demonstrate not only that drinking during adolescence induces enhanced alcohol sensitivity, but also that this DA neuronal response occurs over a range of alcohol concentrations associated with social drinking in humans. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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