Lateral hypothalamic GABAergic neurons encode alcohol memories

In this study, we aimed to describe how alcohol-related memories are encoded and expressed in LH GABAergic neurons. Our first step was to monitor LH-GABA calcium transients during acquisition, extinction, and reinstatement of an alcohol-cue memory using fiber photometry. We trained the rats on a Pavlovian conditioning task, where one conditioned stimulus (CS+) predicted alcohol (20% EtOH) and another conditioned stimulus (CS-) had no outcome. We then extinguished this association through non-reinforced presentations of the CS+ and CS- and finally, in two different groups, we measured relapse under non-primed and alcohol-primed induced reinstatement. Our results show that initially both cues caused increased LH-GABA activity, and after learning only the alcohol cue increased LH-GABA activity. After extinction, this activity decreases, and we found no differences in LH-GABA activity during reinstatement in either group. Next, we inhibited LH-GABA neurons with optogenetics to show that activity of these neurons is necessary for the formation of an alcohol-cue association. These findings suggest that LH-GABA might be involved in attentional processes modulated by learning.PMID:38423016 | DOI:10.1016/j.cub.2024.01.076

Source: Current Biology - February 29, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Isis Alonso-Lozares Pelle Wilbers Lina Asperl Sem Teijsse Charlotte van der Neut Dustin Schetters Yvar van Mourik Allison J McDonald Tim Heistek Huibert D Mansvelder Taco J De Vries Nathan J Marchant Source Type: research