Emily Hueske

This study shows that chronic stress alters Pnoc expression in reward-related brain regions and that NOPR antagonism improves reward learning and motivation in animals and humans.

The paper investigates how dopamine and astrocytic calcium activity coordinate during behavioral breaks in mice, showing dopamine drives astrocytic activity and affects learning.

The paper identifies striosomal populations in the dorsal striatum expressing Pnoc mRNA, which are dopamine receptor D1-expressing medium spiny neurons with direct projections to midbrain dopamine neurons.

This study shows that dopamine release patterns in the dorsal striatum differ between medial and lateral regions during learning, challenging classic reinforcement learning models.

The paper identifies striosomal pathways that target substantia nigra dopamine neurons, with opposite effects on movement compared to canonical pathways.