Department of Basic Neurosciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
Cold Spring Harb Perspect Med. 2013 May 1;3(5):a012013. doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a012013.
Cocaine leads to a strong euphoria, which is at the origin of its recreational use. Past the acute effects, the drug leaves traces in the brain that persist long after it has been cleared from the body. These traces eventually shape behavior such that drug use may become compulsive and addiction develops. Here we discuss cocaine-evoked synaptic plasticity of glutamatergic transmission onto dopamine (DA) neurons of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) as one of the earliest traces after a first injection of cocaine. We review the literature that has examined the induction requirements as well as the expression mechanism of this form of plasticity and ask the question about its functional significance.
可卡因会引发强烈的欣快感,这也是它被滥用的原因。在急性效应过去后,药物会在大脑中留下痕迹,即使在体内已经清除后仍会持续很长时间。这些痕迹最终会影响行为,导致药物使用变得强迫性,从而产生成瘾。在这里,我们讨论可卡因引发的腹侧被盖区(VTA)中多巴胺(DA)神经元上谷氨酸能传递的突触可塑性,这是首次注射可卡因后最早出现的痕迹之一。我们回顾了检查这种形式可塑性的诱导要求和表达机制的文献,并提出了关于其功能意义的问题。