Abstract
Addiction and depression are chronic and relapsing diseases that afflict the reward circuit in the brain. This circuit consists of dopamine midbrain neurons sending input to striatum and other brain regions. However, this circuit overlaps with the basal ganglia (BG) circuit. The two main striatal projection medium spiny neuron (MSN) subtypes that are enriched in dopamine receptor 1 versus 2 (D1 versus D2) receive input from cortex and send distinct projections through various BG nuclei to ultimately feedback to cortex, thus making up the corticobasal ganglia-cortical loops. Through their distinct pathway projections in the BG, the D1-MSNs and D2-MSNs were hypothesized to play antagonistic but coordinated roles in normal behavioral output with an imbalance occurring in these MSN pathways in disease. Previous literature has focused on the role of these MSN subtypes in motor behavior and disease, such as Huntington disease and Parkinson disease. However, during the last decade, many researchers have investigated these MSN subtypes in motivational disease, including drug abuse and depression. This chapter will highlight the current literature in animal models of addiction and depression that have provided insight into the function and molecular mechanisms occurring in striatal circuits in motivational disease.
Published Version
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