Animal models and brain circuits in drug addiction

Animal models in the field of addiction are considered to be among the best available models of neuropsychiatric disease. These models have undergone a number of refinements that allow deeper understanding of the circuitry involved in initiating drug seeking and relapse. Notably, the demonstrable involvement of classic corticostriatal habit circuitry and the engagement of prefrontal cortical circuits in extinction training may have relevance to the therapeutic modulation of habit circuitry and drug addiction in humans.