Cholinergic Interneurons Control Local Circuit Activity and Cocaine Conditioning

• DOI: 10.1126/science.1193771
• Publication Date: 2010-12-16T20:20:45Z
• Authors: Ilana B. Witten; Shih-Chun Lin; Matthew Brodsky; Rohit Prakash; Ilka Diester; Polina Anikeeva; Viviana Gradinaru; Charu Ramakrishnan; Karl Deisseroth
• Keywords: Neurons; 570; 0303 health sciences; Behavior, Animal; Action Potentials; Mice, Transgenic; Motor Activity; Synaptic Potentials; Acetylcholine; Nucleus Accumbens; Choline O-Acetyltransferase; Mice; 03 medical and health sciences; Cocaine; Inhibitory Postsynaptic Potentials; Reward; Interneurons; 616; Conditioning, Psychological; Animals

Few But Powerful

Drug activation of the different types of acetylcholine receptors in cholinergic neurons often generates opposing or conflicting effects. Using optogenetic techniques in transgenic mice,

Witten et al.

(p. 1677 ) investigated the function of a rather enigmatic subpopulation of cholinergic neurons, the giant interneurons of the nucleus accumbens. Their excitation paradoxically reduced neighboring medium spiny neuron firing, while their inhibition increased medium spiny neuron firing. Furthermore, the giant interneurons were directly activated by cocaine, and silencing their drug-induced activity during cocaine exposure in freely behaving animals disrupted cocaine reward.