Becker-Krail, Darius D and Walker, William H and Nelson, Randy J (2022) The Ventral tegmental area and nucleus accumbens as circadian oscillators: implications for drug abuse and substance use disorders. Frontiers in Physiology, 13, 886704. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2022.886704.
External website: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys...
Circadian rhythms convergently evolved to allow for optimal synchronization of individuals' physiological and behavioral processes with the Earth's 24-h periodic cycling of environmental light and temperature. Whereas the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) is considered the primary pacemaker of the mammalian circadian system, many extra-SCN oscillatory brain regions have been identified to not only exhibit sustainable rhythms in circadian molecular clock function, but also rhythms in overall region activity/function and mediated behaviors. In this review, we present the most recent evidence for the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and nucleus accumbens (NAc) to serve as extra-SCN oscillators and highlight studies that illustrate the functional significance of the VTA's and NAc's inherent circadian properties as they relate to reward-processing, drug abuse, and vulnerability to develop substance use disorders (SUDs).
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