Addictive drugs have in common that they target the mesocorticolimbic dopamine (DA)
system. This system originates in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and projects mainly to the …

Addiction is caused, in part, by powerful and long-lasting memories of the drug experience.
Relapse caused by exposure to cues associated with the drug experience is a major clinical …

Repeated administration of cocaine results in the development of behavioral sensitization,
accompanied by a decrease in excitatory synaptic strength in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) …

There is a high degree of overlap between brain regions involved in processing natural
rewards and drugs of abuse.“Non-drug” or “behavioral” addictions have become …

The past two decades have witnessed a dramatic accumulation of evidence indicating that
the excitatory amino acid glutamate plays an important role in drug addiction and …

The main characteristics of cocaine addiction are compulsive drug use despite adverse
consequences and high rates of relapse during periods of abstinence. A current popular …

This review focuses on cocaine-induced postsynaptic plasticity in the nucleus accumbens
(NAc) involving changes in AMPA receptor (AMPAR) transmission. First, fundamental …

Background and rationale Epidemiological evidence suggests that people who begin
experimenting with drugs of abuse during early adolescence are more likely to develop …

Addictive drugs remodel the brain's reward circuitry, the mesocorticolimbic dopamine (DA)
system, by inducing widespread adaptations of glutamatergic synapses. This drug-induced …

Discontinuation of the contingency between a response and its reinforcer sometimes
produces a temporary increase in the response before its rate decreases, a phenomenon …