Ethanol withdrawal induces temporally distinct alterations in oxytocinergic, opioidergic, glutamatergic and neuroimmune systems associated with recognition memory deficits
Abstract
Alcohol use disorder is associated with persistent neuroadaptations and cognitive impairments, particularly during withdrawal, yet the temporal dynamics and interactions between these processes remain poorly understood. In the present study, we investigated time-dependent alterations in the oxytocin receptor (OTR), μ-opioid receptor (MOPr), metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGlu5R), and translocator protein (TSPO) following chronic ethanol exposure and withdrawal, and their relationship to behavioral impairments. Male C57BL/6J mice were exposed to a 10-day escalating-dose ethanol liquid diet paradigm followed by 1, 4, or 7 days of withdrawal. Motor coordination and recognition memory were assessed using rotarod and novel object recognition tests, and receptor binding was quantified using autoradiography across multiple brain regions. Chronic ethanol exposure induced motor deficits that persisted during early withdrawal, whereas recognition memory impairments emerged after 7 days of withdrawal. Ethanol exposure and withdrawal produced region- and time-dependent alterations across all systems examined, with increased OTR binding in septal regions and transient reductions in basomedial amygdala OTR binding during intermediate withdrawal that normalized following prolonged withdrawal, transient increases in MOPr binding in striatal regions at 4 days of withdrawal, increased mGlu5R binding in the nucleus accumbens core, basolateral amygdala, and hippocampus, and early transient…
Read the paper
Related studies
- Diarylethenes for Memories and Switches
- Long-Term Potentiation and Memory
- Social Memory Studies: From “Collective Memory” to the Historical Sociology of Mnemonic Practices
- The Cognitive Neuroscience of Working Memory
- Memory aging and brain maintenance
- Effector and Memory CTL Differentiation
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.