Rationale Prior research has accumulated a substantial amount of evidence on the ability of
cocaine to produce short-and long-lasting molecular and structural plasticity in the …

The consumption of chemical substances that produce transient feelings of euphoria or
pleasure and the development of dependence on those substances by a subset of …

Despite the fact that several data have supported the involvement of the cerebellum in the
functional alterations observed after prolonged cocaine use, this brain structure has been …

Although long-term exposure to nicotine is highly addictive, one beneficial consequence of
chronic tobacco use is a reduced risk for Parkinson's disease. Of interest, these effects both …

The development of drug addiction progresses along a continuum from acute drug use to
compulsive use and drug seeking behavior. Many researchers have focused on identifying …

The involvement of dopamine in drug reinforcement is well recognized but its role in drug
addiction is much less clear. Imaging studies have shown that the reinforcing effects of drugs …

Although the pharmacology of amphetamine-like psychostimulants at dopamine transporters
is well understood, addiction to this class of drugs has proven difficult to deal with. The …

As a classic neuromodulator, dopamine has long been thought to modulate, rather than
trigger, synaptic plasticity. In contrast, our present results demonstrate that within the parallel …

Chronic opiate exposure induces neuroadaptations in the mesocorticolimbic system
including ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine (DA) neurons, whose soma size is …

Drug addiction is manifested by a compulsive drive to take licit or illicit substances despite
repeated severe adverse consequences (Volkow et al., 2012). Addiction is also …