We are pleased to share that Stanford Psychiatry’s Ivy Hoang, Postdoctoral Scholar of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in the Giardino laboratory, has received a fellowship grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse titled “Investigations into extended amygdalar cholecystokinin for cocaine-related sleep disturbances and sleep-dependent cocaine memories.”

Sleep is an essential homeostatic process that allows for physiological recovery and supports emotional and cognitive processes. Sleep disturbances produce adverse effects on memory consolidation, which is a critical mechanism that mediates decision-making and other behaviors when awake. Dysregulated sleep patterns are commonly seen in individuals with a substance use disorder. It is also well-established that substance dependence is, in part, the result of unhealthy decisions to seek and take drugs. Thus, impairments in decision-making seen in substance use disorders that lead to drug use may be due to disturbances in sleep homeostasis and sleep-mediated drug memories.

Identifying a multifunctional neural substrate involved in regulating sleep, memory, and substance use would be key to advancing our understanding of how these behavioral interactions give rise to persistent substance abuse and inform future treatment approaches. The bed nucleus of stria terminalis (BNST) contains a variety of distinct, neuropeptide-expressing neurons that serve functions in a range of behaviors, including stress and emotional arousal. This study will investigate the involvement of a heavily understudied subpopulation of BNST neurons, those expressing cholecystokinin (CCK-BNST), for regulating sleep homeostasis and sleep-dependent drug memories.

“Collectively, the outcomes from this study will provide novel and valuable insight about the role of CCK-BNST neurons in drug seeking and serve as impetus for further research characterizing this promising neural substrate in the development of treatments for substance dependence, targeting sleep disturbances and memory processes underpinning cue-induced relapse,” says Dr. Hoang.

Dr. Hoang is a postdoctoral fellow in the Giardino Laboratory, where lab members are working to advance our understanding of the underlying neural circuitry of psychiatric conditions of stress, sleep disturbances, and substance use. They use advanced technologies in mouse models for precisely mapping, monitoring, and manipulating neurocircuits that drive hedonic and homeostatic states.

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For more details about this project, visit NIH RePORTER.