Examining the involvement of limbic brain circuits in modulating sensitivity to alcohol drug states (2016)
Undergraduates: Verda Agan, Anel Jaramillo Dr. Joyce Besheer
Faculty Advisor: Joyce Besheer
Department: Biology
In 2013, 16.6 million adults ages 18 and older had an alcohol use disorder (AUD). Nearly 88,00 people die from alcohol-related causes annually, which makes it the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States ("Alcohol Facts and Statistics"). New drug treatments could help prevent abuse and potential death from alcohol use. Alcohol drinking produces interceptive effects (e.g., the feeling of "drunkenness" or lightheadedness), which can serve as cues to drive drug-taking behaviors. In the present study, we used a chemogenetic approach (Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs; DREADDS) to determine the role of the insular cortex (IC) in modulating the interoceptive effects of alcohol (1 g/kg, IG) in rats trained to discriminate alcohol vs. water utilizing a Pavlovian discrimination task. The results from this work reveal that a Pavlovian discrimination method can be used to evaluate the interoceptive effects of alcohol. In addition, inactivation of the IC led to greater sensitivity to alcohol, thus demonstrating that the IC functionally regulates the interoceptive effects of alcohol.