Grant: CIHR Fellowship

Addiction is a compulsive behavior meaning that addicts spend exaggerated efforts and persist taking drugs despite severe negative consequences for them, their family, and their friends. Accordingly, something in the brains of addicts does not gate properly the urge to take drugs when adverse consequences are obviously inevitable. In fact, drug addicts are well aware of the negative consequences of their habits, but yet, they cannot help returning to spend exaggerated time seeking, taking, and recovering from drugs. It is the objective of the present research proposal to identify the location (s) and mechanism (s) that may underlie the compulsive aspect of drug addiction. Fortunately, there are now reliable behavioral tests in animals that closely mimic compulsive drug use in humans. Here, we will combine a rodent model of compulsive drug use with neurochemical and electrophysiological assays. This combination will allow us to understand better where in the brain and by which mechanisms do compulsive drug use stems from and may reveal new therapeutical targets to manage and perhaps cure drug addiction.