Ventral medial prefrontal cortex neuronal ensembles mediate context-induced relapse to heroin

Abstract

Using a pharmacogenetic method of Daun02 to selectively inhibit activated neurons, Bossert et al. find that neurons in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex mediate context-induced drug relapse in a rat model of drug reinstatement. In a rat model of context-induced relapse to heroin, we identified sparsely distributed ventral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) neurons that were activated by the heroin-associated context. Selective pharmacogenetic inactivation of these neurons inhibited context-induced drug relapse. A small subset of ventral mPFC neurons formed neuronal ensembles that encode the learned associations between heroin reward and heroin-associated contexts; re-activation of these neuronal ensembles by drug-associated contexts during abstinence provoked drug relapse.