Dopamine Circuit Mechanisms of Addiction-Like Behaviors

Carli L. Poisson, Liv Engel, Benjamin T. Saunders

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

32 Scopus citations

Abstract

Addiction is a complex disease that impacts millions of people around the world. Clinically, addiction is formalized as substance use disorder (SUD), with three primary symptom categories: exaggerated substance use, social or lifestyle impairment, and risky substance use. Considerable efforts have been made to model features of these criteria in non-human animal research subjects, for insight into the underlying neurobiological mechanisms. Here we review evidence from rodent models of SUD-inspired criteria, focusing on the role of the striatal dopamine system. We identify distinct mesostriatal and nigrostriatal dopamine circuit functions in behavioral outcomes that are relevant to addictions and SUDs. This work suggests that striatal dopamine is essential for not only positive symptom features of SUDs, such as elevated intake and craving, but also for impairments in decision making that underlie compulsive behavior, reduced sociality, and risk taking. Understanding the functional heterogeneity of the dopamine system and related networks can offer insight into this complex symptomatology and may lead to more targeted treatments.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number752420
JournalFrontiers in Neural Circuits
Volume15
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 9 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse grants T32 DA007234 (CP) and R00 DA042895 (BS).

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2021 Poisson, Engel and Saunders.

Keywords

  • addiction
  • animal model
  • dopamine
  • mesostriatal
  • nigrostriatal
  • striatum
  • substance use disorder

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