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The subthalamic nucleus exerts opposite control on cocaine and 'natural' rewards

Nature Neuroscience volume 8, pages 484–489 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

A challenge in treating drug addicts is preventing their pathological motivation for the drug without impairing their general affective state toward natural reinforcers. Here we have shown that discrete lesions of the subthalamic nucleus greatly decreased the motivation of rats for cocaine while increasing it for food reward. The subthalamic nucleus, a key structure controlling basal ganglia outputs, is therefore able to oppositely modulate the effect of 'natural' rewards and drugs of abuse on behavior. Modulating the activity of the subthalamic nucleus might prove to be a new target for the treatment of cocaine addiction.

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Figure 1: Frontal sections at the level of the STN, stained with cresyl violet.
Figure 2: Effects of bilateral STN lesions on continuous reinforcement tasks for food and cocaine.
Figure 3: Effects of bilateral STN lesions on performance in the progressive ratio task for food and cocaine.
Figure 4: Effect of a change in dose during continuous reinforcement for cocaine self-administration.
Figure 5: Effects of bilateral STN lesions on conditioned place preference for food or cocaine.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, a European Community 5th PCRDT program funding (QLK6-1999-02173), and by the Fondation France Parkinson and Conseil Régional d'Aquitaine. The authors thank P.V. Piazza for critical reading and corrections of the manuscript; B. J. Everitt, T.W. Robbins, S.H. Ahmed and L. Vanderschuren for discussion of the results and manuscript; and Y. Darbaky and R. LeCozannet for help.

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  1. Laboratoire de Neurobiologie de la Cognition, Unité Mixte de Recherche (UMR) 6155 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Université de Provence, Marseille, 13402, Cedex 20, France

    Christelle Baunez & Marianne Amalric

  2. Laboratoire de Neuropsychobiologie des Désadaptations, UMR5541 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de Bordeaux 2, Bordeaux, 33076, Cedex, France

    Carine Dias & Martine Cador

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Correspondence to Christelle Baunez.

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Baunez, C., Dias, C., Cador, M. et al. The subthalamic nucleus exerts opposite control on cocaine and 'natural' rewards. Nat Neurosci 8, 484–489 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1429

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