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Novel Circuits and Mechanisms Modulating Sensory Integration and Addiction
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Topic Description
Post Date: January 9, 2026
Expiration Date: January 9, 2027
Background
Understanding how abused substances elicit and influence subjective experiences is key to understanding and preventing the development of addiction. The circuit-level encoding of these experiences is more complex than simple binary representations of “feel good/feel bad.” How these circuits function to establish relative subjective reward (and/or lack thereof) likely varies across individuals and dysfunction in this processing may underlie fundamental features of addiction behavioral pathology, such as progressive loss of cognitive control over drug consumption. Moreover, the sensory processing regions of the brain are intricately linked to the motor regions underlying the execution of complex behaviors, and addictive drugs can both modify sensory experiences and elicit interoceptive signals that become associated with positive reinforcing effects of drug use, contributing to the pathology of addiction. Targeted neuromodulation as a therapeutic intervention has largely focused on direct interruption of connected nodes within the core reward circuitry and has not probed the potential value of an extended circuit that incorporates modulators of subjective reward or links to integrated sensory experiences. The neurobiological basis for the relationships between substance use, circuits that modify the degree and balance of perceived reward, and sensory/interoceptive processing is thus an understudied area with strong potential for identifying novel targets or therapies for treating substance use disorder (SUD).
Purpose
To determine how multisensory processing and circuits involved in modulating the rewarding effects of substances affect drug use at different stages of the SUD trajectory. Tools and models should be used that allow examination of the contributions of neural processing occurring at conscious and unconscious levels to the contextual effects of drug use and progression through different phases of addiction.
Participating ICOs
Research of interest to NIDA in this topic area includes the following:
- Exploration of circuits linking sensory processing, interoception, and reward
- Examination of circuits that act to oppose drug reward without inducing aversion; differences in these circuit engagements with acute vs. repeated/chronic drug use
- Examination of the effects of drug withdrawal on circuit activity, plasticity, and other functional characteristics
- Experiments examining features of sensory integration and subjective experience/reward that are common across substances or unique to a particular substance
- Identification of genetic enhancers and suppressors of sensory systems and integrated reward contextualization
- Mechanisms of sensory-evoked synaptic plasticity in circuits relevant to reward and/or addiction
- Behavioral models and quantitative assessment of subjective sensory experience and impacts on motivated behavior.
Tristan McClure-Begley, PhD
[email protected]
The NIH Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH) areas of interest include:
- Projects that focus on sex differences and sex-specific effects to study the neural pathways that connect multisensory processing and circuits involved in modulating the rewarding effects of substance use disorder (SUD).
- Projects to develop the tools and models that allow for examining the contributions of neural processing involved in drug addiction-related behavior, considering sex as a biological variable.
This office does not award grants. Applications must be relevant to the objectives of at least one of the participating NIH Institutes and Centers listed in this topic.
ICO Scientific Contact:Elena Gorodetsky, M.D., Ph.D.
[email protected]
For technical issues E-mail OER Webmaster