Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2017 Aug;142 Suppl 2(Suppl 2):130-143.
doi: 10.1111/jnc.14008.

The medial habenula and interpeduncular nucleus circuitry is critical in addiction, anxiety, and mood regulation

Ian McLaughlin  1   2 , John A Dani  3 , Mariella De Biasi  1   3
Affiliations
Review

The medial habenula and interpeduncular nucleus circuitry is critical in addiction, anxiety, and mood regulation

Ian McLaughlin et al. J Neurochem. 2017 Aug.

Abstract

Abstinence from chronic use of addictive drugs triggers an aversive withdrawal syndrome that compels relapse and deters abstinence. Many features of this syndrome are common across multiple drugs, involving both affective and physical symptoms. Some of the network signaling underlying withdrawal symptoms overlaps with activity that is associated with aversive mood states, including anxiety and depression. Given these shared features, it is not surprising that a particular circuit, the dorsal diencephalic conduction system, and the medial habenula (MHb) and interpeduncular nucleus (IPN), in particular, have been identified as critical to the emergence of aversive states that arise both as a result and, independently, of drug addiction. As the features of this circuit continue to be characterized, the MHb-IPN axis is emerging as a viable target for therapeutics to aid in the treatment of addiction to multiple drugs of abuse as well as mood-associated disorders. This is an article for the special issue XVth International Symposium on Cholinergic Mechanisms.

Keywords: alcohol; epithalamus; interpeduncular nucleus; mood; stress; withdrawal.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interests

All authors declare that they do not have any conflicts of interest to report.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Afferent and efferent connections of the MHb-IPN pathway. The medial habenula-interpeduncular nucleus pathway unites forebrain limbic with midbrain & hindbrain motivation & reward signaling. The medial habenula receives afferent inputs from a wide variety of forebrain limbic structures, and the interpeduncular nucleus sends efferent projections to a variety of midbrain & hindbrain structures implicated in the neurophysiology underlying addiction and a variety of mood-related psychiatric conditions. Red lines indicate afferent projections to the MHb or IPN, and green lines identify efferent
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Agetsuma M, Aizawa H, Aoki T et al. (2010) The habenula is crucial for experience-dependent modification of fear responses in zebrafish. Nature neuroscience, 13, 1354–1356. - PubMed
    1. Ahumada-Galleguillos P, Lemus CG, Diaz E, Osorio-Reich M, Hartel S and Concha ML (2016) Directional asymmetry in the volume of the human habenula. Brain structure & function. - PubMed
    1. Aizawa H, Kobayashi M, Tanaka S, Fukai T and Okamoto H (2012) Molecular characterization of the subnuclei in rat habenula. The Journal of comparative neurology, 520, 4051–4066. - PubMed
    1. Antolin-Fontes B, Ables JL, Görlich A and Ibañez-Tallon I (2015) The Habenulo-Interpeduncular pathway in nicotine aversion and withdrawal. Neuropharmacology, 96, 213–222. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Association AP (2013) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. American Psychiatric Publishing, Arlington, VA.

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances