Robyn St. Laurent

The paper identifies Tshz1 neurons in the nucleus accumbens as critical for withdrawal aversion by modulating dopamine release and mGluR8 activity, offering a new therapeutic target for opioid use disorder.

This study shows that dysfunction in the dorsal intercalated nuclei of the amygdala (ITCd) in Sapap3-null mice leads to impaired extinction of avoidant behavior, which can be rescued by optogenetic inhibition of ITCd.

The paper introduces a method to control synaptically connected neurons using bioluminescent light, validated in cultured neurons and mice.