Many physiologic effects of l-glutamate, the major excitatory neurotransmitter in the
mammalian central nervous system, are mediated via signaling by ionotropic glutamate …

The nucleus accumbens is a major input structure of the basal ganglia and integrates
information from cortical and limbic structures to mediate goal-directed behaviors. Chronic …

Sex/gender effects have been demonstrated for multiple aspects of addiction, with one of the
most commonly cited examples being the “telescoping effect” where women meet criteria …

Addiction is a disease in which, after a period of recreational use, a subset of individuals
develops compulsive use that does not stop even in light of major negative consequences …

The ventral tegmental area (VTA) is a heterogeneous brain structure that serves a central
role in motivation and reward processing. Abnormalities in the function of VTA dopamine …

Although it is challenging for individuals with cocaine addiction to achieve abstinence, the
greatest difficulty is avoiding relapse to drug taking, which is often triggered by cues …

What is the defining property of addiction? We dust off a several-decades-long debate about
the relative importance of two forms of reinforcement—positive reinforcement, subjectively …

Excitatory afferents to the nucleus accumbens (NAc) are thought to facilitate reward seeking
by encoding reward-associated cues. Selective activation of different glutamatergic inputs to …

Glutamatergic projections from the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) to nucleus accumbens
(NAc) contribute to cocaine relapse. Here we show that silent synapse-based remodeling of …

Physical activity, and specifically exercise, has been suggested as a potential treatment for
drug addiction. In this review, we discuss clinical and preclinical evidence for the efficacy of …