Contemporary neuroscience aims to understand how neuronal activity produces internal processes and observable behavioral states. This aim crucially depends on systems-level, circuit-based analyses of the working brain, as behavioral states arise from information flow and connectivity within and between discrete and overlapping brain regions, forming circuits and networks. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), offers a key to advance circuit neuroscience; fMRI measures inter and intra- regional circuits at behaviorally relevant spatial-temporal resolution. Herein, we argue that cross-sectional observations in human populations can be best understood via mechanistic and causal insights derived from brain circuitry obtained from preclinical fMRI models. Using nicotine addiction as an exemplar of a circuit-based substance use disorder, we review fMRI-based observations of a circuit that was first shown to be disrupted among human smokers and was recently replicated in rodent models of nicotine dependence. Next, we discuss circuits that predispose to nicotine dependence severity and their interaction with circuits that change as a result of chronic nicotine administration using a rodent model of dependence. Data from both clinical and preclinical fMRI experiments argue for the utility of fMRI studies in translation and reverse translation of a circuit-based understanding of brain disease states. We conclude by discussing the future of circuit neuroscience and functional neuroimaging as an essential bridge between animal models and human populations to the understanding of brain function in health and disease.

当代神经科学旨在了解神经元活动如何产生内部过程和可观察的行为状态。这个目标关键取决于对工作大脑的系统级、基于电路的分析，因为行为状态源于离散和重叠大脑区域内和之间的信息流和连接，形成电路和网络。功能性磁共振成像 (fMRI)，为推进电路神经科学提供了关键；fMRI 以行为相关的时空分辨率测量区域间和区域内回路。在此，我们认为可以通过从临床前 fMRI 模型获得的大脑回路中获得的机械和因果洞察力来最好地理解人类群体的横截面观察。使用尼古丁成瘾作为基于电路的物质使用障碍的例子，我们回顾了基于 fMRI 的电路观察，该电路首先被证明在人类吸烟者中被破坏，最近在尼古丁依赖的啮齿动物模型中得到了复制。接下来，我们使用啮齿类动物依赖模型讨论易患尼古丁依赖严重程度的回路及其与因慢性尼古丁给药而改变的回路的相互作用。来自临床和临床前 fMRI 实验的数据都支持 fMRI 研究在基于电路的脑疾病状态理解的翻译和反向翻译中的效用。我们最后讨论了电路神经科学和功能性神经影像学的未来，它们是动物模型和人类群体之间的重要桥梁，以了解健康和疾病中的大脑功能。