Social reward outcompetes drug seeking dopaminergic ensembles to prevent relapse - PubMed
4 hours ago
- #dopaminergic ensembles
- #social reward
- #drug seeking
- Drugs of abuse hijack mesolimbic circuits that process natural rewards.
- Social reward has therapeutic potential for substance use disorder (SUD).
- Two distinct dopaminergic ensembles in the VTA encode social reward and drug seeking.
- These antagonistic ensembles compete reciprocally to shape behavioral outcomes.
- Social reward-responsive dopaminergic ensembles receive preferential input from the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN).
- Activation of the DRN-VTA pathway mimics social reward's protective effects against drug seeking.
- Social reward attenuates drug seeking through dynamic competition between dopaminergic ensembles.