Complementary Roles for Ventral Pallidum Cell Types and Their Projections in Relapse

The ventral pallidum (VP) is a key node in the neural circuits controlling relapse to drug seeking. How this role relates to different VP cell types and their projections is poorly understood. Using male rats, we show how different forms of relapse to alcohol-seeking are assembled from VP cell types and their projections to lateral hypothalamus (LH) and ventral tegmental area (VTA). Using RNAScope hybridization to characterize activity of different VP cell types during relapse to alcohol-seeking provoked by renewal (context-induced reinstatement), we found that VP Gad1 and parvalbumin (PV), but not vGlut2, neurons show relapse-associated changes in c-Fos expression. Next, we used retrograde tracing, chemogenetic, and electrophysiological approaches to study the roles of VP and VP neurons in relapse. We show that VP neurons contribute to contextual control over relapse (renewal), but not to relapse during reacquisition, via projections to LH, where they converge with ventral striatal inputs onto LH neurons. This convergence of striatopallidal inputs at the level of individual LH neurons may be critical to balancing propensity for relapse versus abstinence. In contrast, VP neurons contribute to relapse during both renewal and reacquisition via projections to VTA. These findings identify a double dissociation in the roles for different VP cell types and their projections in relapse. VP neurons control relapse during renewal via projections to LH. VP neurons control relapse during both renewal and reacquisition via projections to VTA. Targeting these different pathways may provide tailored interventions for different forms of relapse. Relapse to drug or reward seeking after a period of extinction or abstinence remains a key impediment to successful treatment. The ventral pallidum, located in the ventral basal ganglia, has long been recognized as an obligatory node in a 'final common pathway' for relapse. Yet how this role relates to the considerable VP cellular and circuit heterogeneity is not well understood. We studied the cellular and circuit architecture for VP in relapse control. We show that different forms of relapse have complementary VP cellular and circuit architectures, raising the possibility that targeting these different neural architectures may provide tailored interventions for different forms of relapse.