70
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: not found

      The Neuroscience of Drug Reward and Addiction

      1 , 1 , 1
      Physiological Reviews
      American Physiological Society

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisherPMC
      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Drug consumption is driven by a drug’s pharmacological effects, which are experienced as rewarding, and is influenced by genetic, developmental, and psychosocial factors that mediate drug accessibility, norms, and social support systems or lack thereof. The reinforcing effects of drugs mostly depend on dopamine signaling in the nucleus accumbens, and chronic drug exposure triggers glutamatergic-mediated neuroadaptations in dopamine striato-thalamo-cortical (predominantly in prefrontal cortical regions including orbitofrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex) and limbic pathways (amygdala and hippocampus) that, in vulnerable individuals, can result in addiction. In parallel, changes in the extended amygdala result in negative emotional states that perpetuate drug taking as an attempt to temporarily alleviate them. Counterintuitively, in the addicted person, the actual drug consumption is associated with an attenuated dopamine increase in brain reward regions, which might contribute to drug-taking behavior to compensate for the difference between the magnitude of the expected reward triggered by the conditioning to drug cues and the actual experience of it. Combined, these effects result in an enhanced motivation to “seek the drug” (energized by dopamine increases triggered by drug cues) and an impaired prefrontal top-down self-regulation that favors compulsive drug-taking against the backdrop of negative emotionality and an enhanced interoceptive awareness of “drug hunger.” Treatment interventions intended to reverse these neuroadaptations show promise as therapeutic approaches for addiction.

          Related collections

          Most cited references309

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: not found
          • Article: not found

          The neuroscience of mindfulness meditation.

          Research over the past two decades broadly supports the claim that mindfulness meditation - practiced widely for the reduction of stress and promotion of health - exerts beneficial effects on physical and mental health, and cognitive performance. Recent neuroimaging studies have begun to uncover the brain areas and networks that mediate these positive effects. However, the underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear, and it is apparent that more methodologically rigorous studies are required if we are to gain a full understanding of the neuronal and molecular bases of the changes in the brain that accompany mindfulness meditation.
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: not found
            • Article: not found

            Neurobiologic Advances from the Brain Disease Model of Addiction.

              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: not found

              Drug Addiction: Updating Actions to Habits to Compulsions Ten Years On.

              A decade ago, we hypothesized that drug addiction can be viewed as a transition from voluntary, recreational drug use to compulsive drug-seeking habits, neurally underpinned by a transition from prefrontal cortical to striatal control over drug seeking and taking as well as a progression from the ventral to the dorsal striatum. Here, in the light of burgeoning, supportive evidence, we reconsider and elaborate this hypothesis, in particular the refinements in our understanding of ventral and dorsal striatal mechanisms underlying goal-directed and habitual drug seeking, the influence of drug-associated Pavlovian-conditioned stimuli on drug seeking and relapse, and evidence for impairments in top-down prefrontal cortical inhibitory control over this behavior. We further review animal and human studies that have begun to define etiological factors and individual differences in the propensity to become addicted to drugs, leading to the description of addiction endophenotypes, especially for cocaine addiction. We consider the prospect of novel treatments for addiction that promote abstinence from and relapse to drug use.
                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Journal
                Physiological Reviews
                Physiological Reviews
                American Physiological Society
                0031-9333
                1522-1210
                October 01 2019
                October 01 2019
                : 99
                : 4
                : 2115-2140
                Affiliations
                [1 ]National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
                Article
                10.1152/physrev.00014.2018
                6890985
                31507244
                14308ea5-8239-4ad5-9aff-c33c031d33f7
                © 2019
                History

                Comments

                Comment on this article