Feature: The neuroscience of addiction - Neuroscience, Florey Neuroscience Institute, drug discovery, addiction - Australian Life Scientist

07:50 Feature: The neuroscience of addiction 0 Comments

Feature: The neuroscience of addiction - Neuroscience, Florey Neuroscience Institute, drug discovery, addiction - Australian Life Scientist: "In their search for the molecular roots of addiction, the Florey team studied neurons that project from the prefrontal cortex, just behind the forehead, down into the striatum, in the inside of the forebrain. Within the striatum lies the nucleus accumbens, a cluster of neurons known to play a key role in reward, pleasure and addiction.

The neurons projecting from the prefrontal cortex employ the brain’s primary excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate. Where they terminate in the nucleus accumbens, the target neurons are studded with a type of glutamate receptor called mGlu5, also known as the metabotropic glutamate receptor 5.

“There is increasing evidence that this corticostriatal projection is a key part of the addictive system in laboratory animals, and some brain imaging studies in humans essentially concur with that conclusion,” says Lawrence."

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