# Brain Reward and Stress System Interactions in Alcohol Dependence

> **NIH NIH F32** · LSU HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER · 2020 · $33,723

## Abstract

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) affects ~17 million Americans, contributing to more than 2.5 million deaths each year
in the United States alone and costing the United States $249 billion annually. Excessive alcohol drinking by
individuals with AUD contributes to alcohol-related injury and death, currently the 4th leading cause of preventable
death in the U.S. The neurobiological mechanisms underlying an individual’s response to alcohol, and his/her
propensity to develop AUD, are not entirely understood. It is known that alcohol alters neurotransmission in
mesocorticolimbic circuitry, including the ventral tegmental area (VTA), and that chronic alcohol alters
neurotransmission in the central amygdala (CeA), an area involved in escalated alcohol drinking. Recent
research showed that there is considerable heterogeneity among VTA dopamine (DA) neurons, and that
classification of these neurons based on projection targets reveals different responses of neuronal subsets to
rewarding and aversive stimuli. Important for the work proposed here, there is a functional connection between
the VTA and CeA, and although each of these regions is important for addictive behavior, the role of the
connection between them in addictive behaviors is unknown. The overarching hypothesis of this proposal is that
VTA DA neurons projecting to the CeA are critical for mediating alcohol dependence-induced escalation of
alcohol drinking. To test this hypothesis, the proposal will utilize a combination of anatomical, cellular, and
behavioral techniques. This proposal will provide a promising young scientist with vital research training and
professional development opportunities facilitated by experiments that use an integrative approach to test the
predictions that: 1) VTA DA neurons projecting to the CeA display increased activity following repeated cycles
of alcohol exposure and withdrawal, and 2) VTA DA projections to CeA mediate escalation of alcohol drinking in
alcohol-dependent animals. The results of these studies will open new avenues of neuroscientific investigation
exploring the crosstalk between brain reward and brain stress systems in addiction. This work may also inform
development of treatment strategies for reducing escalated alcohol drinking in individuals with AUD, leading to
improvements in quality of life and health of affected individuals, decreasing morbidity associated with these
disorders, and potentially saving the U.S. millions of dollars in health care costs.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10264771
- **Project number:** 5F32AA025831-04
- **Recipient organization:** LSU HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Elizabeth Minor Avegno
- **Activity code:** F32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $33,723
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-06-01 → 2021-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10264771

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10264771, Brain Reward and Stress System Interactions in Alcohol Dependence (5F32AA025831-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10264771. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*