Neural Bases of Stimulus-Induced Cocaine Seeking (2007)

Undergraduate: Guinevere Bell

Faculty Advisor: Rita Fuchs-Lokensgard
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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Cocaine addiction is a complex process that is strongly influenced by the environment in which drug use and abuse occurs because environmental cues form strong stimulus-reward associations with the drug. As a result, environmental cues become conditioned stimuli which are endowed with the ability to elicit motivation for cocaine. When users are exposed to these stimuli they experience cue-induced craving and frequently exhibit cocaine-seeking behavior. Cocaine addicts experience chronic cue-induced craving often leading to drug relapse, perpetuating the drug addiction cycle.
Drug associated environmental cues gain the ability to control the behavior of the addict over long periods of time because memories of the underlying stimulus-reward association are encoded into long-term memory. However, recent memory theories suggest that these long-term memories are not static. Specifically, upon retrieval (i.e. cue re-exposure) the associations may enter a labile state in which they are vulnerable to disruption. In order to maintain their strength, the associations need to be successfully re-stored into long-term memory through the process of reconsolidation. By manipulating the neural mechanisms underlying reconsolidation, this study aims to disrupt the process of reconsolidation and hopefully reduce cocaine-seeking behavior.