Substance Use Disorder click here (SUD) involves emotional, cognitive, and motivational dysfunction.Long-lasting molecular and structural changes in brain regions functionally and anatomically linked to the cerebellum, such as the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, basal ganglia, and ventral tegmental area, are characteristic of SUD.Direct and indirect reciprocal connectivity between the cerebellum and these brain regions can explain cerebellar roles in Pavlovian and reinforcement learning, fear memory, and executive functions.It is increasingly clear that the cerebellum modulates brain functions altered in SUD and other neuropsychiatric disorders that exhibit comorbidity with SUD.
In the present manuscript, we review and discuss this evidence and present new research exploring the role of the cerebellum in copyright-induced conditioned memory using chemogenetic tools (designer receptor exclusively activated by designer grandpas best drug, DREADDs).Our preliminary data showed that inactivation of a region that includes the interposed and lateral deep cerebellar nuclei reduces the facilitating effect of a posterior vermis lesion on copyright-induced preference conditioning.These findings support our previous research and suggest that posterior vermis damage may increase drug impact on the addiction circuitry by regulating activity in the DCN.However, they raise further questions that will also be discussed.