Project Grant R01DA061057

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is conducting a project titled "Habenula Circuitry, Smoking, and Genomics" under a $1,336,946 project grant award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) under the Drug Use and Addiction Research Programs (CFDA 93.279). The project aims to elucidate the neural circuitry linked to smoking and the genetic influences on it, in order to facilitate the development of novel treatments for tobacco use disorder. Key objectives include examining habenula functional connectivity with the salience network and ventral tegmental area, and the influence of genomic variations on this connectivity, comparing regular smokers to non-smokers. The project will also explore relationships between habenula functional connectivity, negative affect, and amygdala activation. Findings from this research could have implications beyond tobacco use disorder, given the habenula's role in other psychiatric conditions. The project period runs from Sep 30, 2024 to May 31, 2027.