Abstract
Gonadal hormones play a vital role in driving motivated behavior. They not only modulate responses to naturally rewarding stimuli, but also influence responses to drugs of abuse. A commonality between gonadal hormones and drugs of abuse is that they both impact the neurocircuitry of reward, including the regulation of structural plasticity in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Previous hormonal studies have focused on the mechanisms and behavioral correlates of estradiol-induced dendritic spine changes in the female NAc. Here we sought to determine the effects of androgens on medium spiny neuron (MSN) spine plasticity in the male NAc. Following treatment with the androgen receptor agonist dihydrotestosterone (DHT), MSNs in castrated male rats exhibited a significant decrease in dendritic spine density. This effect was isolated to the shell subregion of the NAc. The effect of DHT was dependent on mGluR5 activity, and local mGluR5 activation and subsequent endocannabinoid signaling produce an analogous NAc shell spine decrease. Somewhat surprisingly, DHT-induced conditioned place preference Remained intact following systemic inhibition of mGluR5. These findings indicate that androgens can utilize mGluR signaling, similar to estrogens, to mediate changes in NAc dendritic structure. In addition, there are notable differences in the direction of spine changes, and site specificity of estrogen and androgen action, suggesting sex differences in the hormonal regulation of motivated behaviors.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Article number | 855 |
Journal | Frontiers in Neuroscience |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | NOV |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 20 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This research was supported by National Institutes of Health grants DA035008 (PM and RM). KG was supported by NIH grant T32DA007234 (PM).
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2018 Gross, Moore, Meisel and Mermelstein.
Keywords
- Conditioned place preference
- Dendritic spine
- Dihydrotestosterone
- MGluR5
- Nucleus accumbens