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Addiction

Targeting neural correlates of addiction

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 7, page 8 (2006)Cite this article

The drug-induced behavioural sensitization of motor activity — in which a long-lasting increase in the locomotor stimulatory effects of a drug of abuse is seen after repeated administration — is used to model some of the core features of addiction and the development of drug-induced psychosis. Changes in synaptic strength in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) are associated with the induction of behavioural sensitization, whereas synaptic plasticity in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), which receives dopaminergic projections from the VTA, seems to be responsible for its long-term expression.

In particular, enhanced LTD of glutamatergic transmission in the NAc has been identified as a neural correlate of behavioural sensitization to cocaine. Now Brebner et al. take an important step further by providing insights into the molecular mechanisms that underlie NAc LTD and the expression of behavioural sensitization to amphetamine.

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References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Brebner, K. et al. Nucleus accumbens long-term depression and the expression of behavioral sensitization. Science 310, 1340–1343 (2005)

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FURTHER READING

  1. Thomas, M. J. et al. Long-term depression in the nucleus accumbens: a neural correlate of behavioral sensitization to cocaine. Nature Neurosci. 4, 1217–1223 (2001)

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  2. Hyman, S. E. & Malenka, R. C. Addiction and the brain: the neurobiology of compulsion and its persistence. Nature Rev. Neurosci. 2, 695–703 (2001)

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Authors
  1. Rebecca Craven
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Craven, R. Targeting neural correlates of addiction. Nat Rev Neurosci 7, 8 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1840

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1840

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