Addiction silences synapses in reward circuits
Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - 11:01
in Biology & Nature
In addiction, cues in the environment can form strong associations with the drug of abuse. A new study suggests that alterations in silent synapses, inactive connections between neurons, could be the neural mechanism underlying the formation of these drug-related memories. The alterations were found in the nucleus accumbens, a brain region involved in reward-related learning.