Scientists identify how repeated cocaine use increases addictiveness

Press release issued: 10 February 2023

Scientists have identified the brain structures responsible for compulsive drug-seeking behaviours due to repeated use of cocaine. The findings, published in Biomedicines, identifies the structures involved and neural pathways activated with repeated exposure to the drug. Researchers hope the study could help inform treatment for drug addiction.

Researchers from the Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil, and the University of Bristol Veterinary School, UK, aimed to identify the brain structures involved in behavioural responses to cocaine. Scientists believe the phenomenon underpins abusers compulsive desire for the drug by causing changes in several areas of the brain’s neural pathways which mediate reward and adaptive behaviours.

Using animal models and an innovative state-of-the-art 3D quantitative image analysis, known as stereology, the team were able to identify the specific areas of the brain activated when these were repeatedly exposed to cocaine.

Read the full University of Bristol news item

Paper: ‘Distinctive neuroanatomic regions involved in cocaine-induced behavioral sensitization in mice’ by B M Longo et al. in Biomedicines