Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-6-2023

Publication Title

Journal of Neuroscience

Abstract

Avoidance stress coping, defined as persistent internal and/or external avoidance of stress-related stimuli, is a key feature of anxiety- and stress-related disorders, and contributes to increases in alcohol misuse after stress exposure. Previous work using a rat model of predator odor stress avoidance identified corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) signaling via CRF type-1 receptors (CRF1) in the central amygdala (CeA), as well as CeA projections to the lateral hypothalamus (LH) as key mediators of conditioned avoidance of stress-paired contexts and/or increased alcohol drinking after stress. Here, we report that CRF1-expressing CeA cells that project to the LH are preferentially activated in male and female rats that show persistent avoidance of predator odor stress-paired contexts (termed Avoider rats), and that chemogenetic inhibition of these cells rescues stress-induced increases in anxiety-like behavior and alcohol self-administration in male and female Avoider rats. Using slice electrophysiology, we found that prior predator odor stress exposure blunts inhibitory synaptic transmission and increases synaptic drive in CRF1 CeA-LH cells. In addition, we found that CRF bath application reduces synaptic drive in CRF1 CeA-LH cells in Non-Avoiders only. Collectively, these data show that CRF1 CeA-LH cells contribute to stress-induced increases in anxiety-like behavior and alcohol self-administration in male and female Avoider rats.

First Page

8690

Last Page

8699

PubMed ID

37932105

Volume

43

Issue

50

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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