Title

Anxiety and Nicotine Dependence: Emerging Role of the Habenulo-Interpeduncular Axis

UMMS Affiliation

Brudnick Neuropsychiatric Research Institute, Department of Psychiatry

Publication Date

2017-02-01

Document Type

Article

Disciplines

Mental and Social Health | Mental Disorders | Neuroscience and Neurobiology | Psychiatry | Psychiatry and Psychology | Substance Abuse and Addiction

Abstract

While innovative modern neuroscience approaches have aided in discerning brain circuitry underlying negative emotional behaviors including fear and anxiety responses, how these circuits are recruited in normal and pathological conditions remains poorly understood. Recently, genetic tools that selectively manipulate single neuronal populations have uncovered an understudied circuit, the medial habenula (mHb)-interpeduncular (IPN) axis, that modulates basal negative emotional responses. Interestingly, the mHb-IPN pathway also represents an essential circuit that signals heightened anxiety induced by nicotine withdrawal. Insights into how this circuit interconnects with regions more classically associated with anxiety, and how chronic nicotine exposure induces neuroadaptations resulting in an anxiogenic state, may thereby provide novel strategies and molecular targets for therapies that facilitate smoking cessation, as well as for anxiety relief.

Keywords

anxiety, fear, interpeduncular nucleus, medial habenula, nicotine withdrawal

DOI of Published Version

10.1016/j.tips.2016.11.001

Source

Trends Pharmacol Sci. 2017 Feb;38(2):169-180.Link to article on publisher's site

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Trends in pharmacological sciences

Related Resources

Link to Article in PubMed

PubMed ID

27890353

Link to Full Text

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