%A Casarrubea,Maurizio %A Davies,Caitlin %A Faulisi,Fabiana %A Pierucci,Massimo %A Colangeli,Roberto %A Partridge,Lucy %A Chambers,Stephanie %A Cassar,Daniel %A Valentino,Mario %A Muscat,Richard %A Benigno,Arcangelo %A Crescimanno,Giuseppe %A Di Giovanni,Giuseppe %D 2015 %J Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience %C %F %G English %K Anxiety,Serotonin,Dopamine,Lateral habenula,Nicotine,T-pattern analysis %Q %R 10.3389/fncel.2015.00197 %W %L %M %P %7 %8 2015-June-01 %9 Original Research %+ Dr Maurizio Casarrubea,Laboratory of Behavioral Physiology, Department of Experimental Biomedicine and Clinical Neurosciences, Human Physiology Section “Giuseppe Pagano”, University of Palermo,Palermo, Italy,maurizio.casarrubea@unipa.it %+ Prof Giuseppe Di Giovanni,Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, Department of Physiology and Biochemistry, University of Malta,Msida, Malta,maurizio.casarrubea@unipa.it %+ Prof Giuseppe Di Giovanni,School of Biosciences, Cardiff University,Cardiff, UK,maurizio.casarrubea@unipa.it %# %! Nicotine, Anxiety and the Lateral Habenula %* %< %T Acute nicotine induces anxiety and disrupts temporal pattern organization of rat exploratory behavior in hole-board: a potential role for the lateral habenula %U https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncel.2015.00197 %V 9 %0 JOURNAL ARTICLE %@ 1662-5102 %X Nicotine is one of the most addictive drugs of abuse. Tobacco smoking is a major cause of many health problems, and is the first preventable cause of death worldwide. Several findings show that nicotine exerts significant aversive as well as the well-known rewarding motivational effects. Less certain is the anatomical substrate that mediates or enables nicotine aversion. Here, we show that acute nicotine induces anxiogenic-like effects in rats at the doses investigated (0.1, 0.5, and 1.0 mg/kg, i.p.), as measured by the hole-board apparatus and manifested in behaviors such as decreased rearing and head-dipping and increased grooming. No changes in locomotor behavior were observed at any of the nicotine doses given. T-pattern analysis of the behavioral outcomes revealed a drastic reduction and disruption of complex behavioral patterns induced by all three nicotine doses, with the maximum effect for 1 mg/kg. Lesion of the lateral habenula (LHb) induced hyperlocomotion and, strikingly, reversed the nicotine-induced anxiety obtained at 1 mg/kg to an anxiolytic-like effect, as shown by T-pattern analysis. We suggest that the LHb is critically involved in emotional behavior states and in nicotine-induced anxiety, most likely through modulation of monoaminergic nuclei.