[Memory processes and addiction: involvement of the calcineurin signaling pathway].

It has recently emerged that there is a commonality in the molecular mechanisms underlying long-term neuronal changes in drug addiction and those mediating synaptic plasticity associated with learning and memory. Several lines of evidence indicate that the brain regions involved in learning and memory and those underlying drug addiction may overlap. Learning and memory processes and drug addiction also share intracellular signaling cascades and are associated with similar changes in synaptic plasticity. The purpose of the present paper is an attempt to further explore the hypothesis that learning and memory are essential for the development of addiction. The data suggest that hippocampal calcineurin signaling is involved in the long-term adaptation after chronic drug treatment in a way that may parallel its role during memory formation. Such an effect is consistent with the common molecular mechanisms shared by addiction and memory processes. Given the well-established role of the hippocampus in associative learning and memory, this paper further emphasize the important role of this forebrain structure in controlling long-lasting features of addiction.