Cocaine-induced decision-making deficits are mediated by miscoding in basolateral amygdala
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Updated: Jul 14, 2026

Using Optogenetics to Reverse Neuroplasticity and Inhibit Cocaine Seeking in Rats
Published on: October 5, 2021
Thomas A Stalnaker1, Matthew R Roesch, Theresa M Franz
1Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 20 Penn St., HSF-2 S251, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, USA. tstal002@umaryland.edu
Abstract:
Addicts and drug-experienced animals have decision-making deficits in reversal-learning tasks and more complex 'gambling' variants. Here we show evidence that these deficits are mediated by persistent encoding of outdated associative information in the basolateral amygdala. Cue-selective neurons in the basolateral amygdala, recorded in cocaine-treated rats, failed to change cue preference during reversal learning. Further, the presence of these neurons was critical to the expression of the reversal-learning deficit in the cocaine-treated rats.
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