Nature Communications (Jan 2018)

Chronic alcohol exposure disrupts top-down control over basal ganglia action selection to produce habits

  • Rafael Renteria,
  • Emily T. Baltz,
  • Christina M. Gremel

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02615-9
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

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Drug dependence shifts the balance in action selection away from goal-directed to habitual responding. Here, the authors report that chronic passive exposure to alcohol leads to suppression of orbitofrontal cortex inputs to dorsomedial striatum resulting in downregulation of goal-directed behavior.