Investigating the Effects of the Insular Cortex on Alcohol Self-Administration (2016)

Undergraduates: Spencer Stewart, Anel Jaramillo Joyce Besheer, PhD. Spencer Stewart

Faculty Advisor: Joyce Besheer
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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Alcohol Use Disorders (AUDs) are a leading cause of death in the United States, with nearly 17 million adults being affected every year (NIAAA, 2015). With these disorders affecting such a large portion of the population, it is imperative that new and effective treatments be developed to combat AUDs. In order to develop successful treatments, the underlying mechanisms that mediate alcohol self-administration must be identified, in order to correctly target the specific brain areas that control alcohol drinking. The current study targets the insular cortex (IC) and its role in generating the interoceptive effects of alcohol. In order to test the IC¿¿¿s role on alcohol self-administration, the IC was chemogenetically inactivated by using Gi-DREADDs activated by a clozapine-N-oxide (CNO) pretreatment injection. CNO was administered via IP injection at either 30, 45, or 60 minutes prior to the 30-minute self-administration test session. There was no significant evidence that chemogenetic inactivation of the IC had an effect on alcohol self-administration, although we hypothesized that it would increase alcohol consumption. Certain trends in the data suggested that a 45 minute pretreatment time for CNO injection had the greatest effect on alcohol self-administration, although this effect was not significant (Fig. 2A).