Transition to addiction is associated with a persistent impairment in synaptic plasticity.

FERNANDO KASANETZ; VÉRONIQUE DEROCHE-GAMONET, NADÈGE BERSON, ERIC BALADO, MATHIEU LAFOURCADE, OLIVIER MANZONI, PIER VINCENZO PIAZZA

SCIENCE

AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE

Año: 2010 vol. 328 p. 1709 - 1712

0036-8075

Chronic exposure to drugs of abuse induces countless modifications in brain physiology. However, the neurobiological adaptations specifically associated with the transition to addiction are unknown. Cocaine self-administration rapidly suppresses long-term depression (LTD), an important form of synaptic plasticity in the nucleus accumbens. Using a rat model of addiction, we found that animals that progressively develop the behavioral hallmarks of addiction have permanently impaired LTD, whereas LTD is progressively recovered in nonaddicted rats maintaining a controlled drug intake. By making drug seeking consistently resistant to modulation by environmental contingencies and consequently more and more inflexible, a persistently impaired LTD could mediate the transition to addiction.