While considerable effort has been focused upon the neurobiological circuits mediating appetitive, or reward seeking, aspects on alcohol self-administration, our understanding of the circuits that mediate the consummatory aspects ? the actual alcohol intake itself ? is more limited. Therefore, the studies proposed in this application seek to define the neural circuits that control alcohol intake. These studies build on past work supporting a role for the nucleus accumbens and the amygdala central nucleus both in both natural feeding and in alcohol intake. The contribution of these regions and selected afferents and efferents will be determined using optogenetics to activate or suppress neuronal populations or specific neural projections, and using calcium imaging to query the activity of these neural elements, during cue-elicited and spontaneous alcohol intake. In addition, these studies will examine the impact of prior alcohol dependence on the role of the accumbens and the amygdala central nucleus given the strong evidence for alcohol- induced neuroadaptations in these extended amygdala regions. These studies represent important steps towards specification of consummatory circuits whose function may change after chronic alcohol representing a possible neurobiological mediator of excessive or escalated alcohol intake.
Alcohol use disorders cause enormous individual health, social, and economic burdens in the United States and around the world. To design new therapies to assist in the treatment of alcohol use disorders we need to better understand the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie alcohol intake itself. The proposed studies focus on the extended amygdala and apply state-of-the-art technologies to define the circuit mechanisms underlying alcohol intake, including after alcohol dependence, to aid in achieving that goal.
