Abstract
The core and shell of the nucleus accumbens have critical, differential roles in drug-dependent behaviors. Here we show that operant cocaine self-administration inhibits long-term depression (LTD) in both structures after 1 d of abstinence. However, after 21 d of abstinence, LTD was abolished exclusively in the nucleus accumbens core of cocaine self-administering rats, suggesting that voluntary cocaine self-administration induced long-lasting neuroadaptations in the core that could underlie drug-seeking behavior and relapse.
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Acknowledgements
We thank L. Daitch for editorial assistance. This work was supported by funds from the State of California for medical research on alcohol and substance abuse through the University of California, San Francisco (A.B.) and the National Institutes of Health 1RO1DA15096-01 (A.B.).
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M.M., B.T.C. and F.W.H. contributed toward the electrophysiological experiments. M.M., B.T.C. and M.S.B. contributed toward animal training.
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Martin, M., Chen, B., Hopf, F. et al. Cocaine self-administration selectively abolishes LTD in the core of the nucleus accumbens. Nat Neurosci 9, 868–869 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1713
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1713
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