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Addictive drugs and brain stimulation reward
1Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology and Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.
Annual Review of Neuroscience
|January 1, 1996
Summary
Direct brain stimulation and addictive drugs create reward habits by acting on the same brain circuits. This suggests common mechanisms underlie natural, electrical, and drug-induced rewards, explaining their habit-forming potential.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychopharmacology
- Addiction Science
Background:
- Natural rewards like food and sex establish response habits.
- Direct brain stimulation can mimic these reward-based habits.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if addictive drugs interact with brain stimulation reward.
- To explore common neural mechanisms for natural, drug, and brain stimulation rewards.
Main Methods:
- Electrical stimulation of the medial forebrain bundle (MFB) in animal models.
- Administration of various drugs of abuse (cocaine, opiates, nicotine, phencyclidine, cannabis, amphetamine).
- Assessing the summative and potentiating effects of drugs on brain stimulation reward.
Main Results:
- Several drugs of abuse (cocaine, opiates, nicotine, phencyclidine, cannabis) summate with MFB stimulation.
- Amphetamine and opiates potentiate brain stimulation reward at central sites where they are also directly rewarding.
- Drug effects on brain stimulation reward are localized to areas relevant to their own rewarding actions.
Conclusions:
- Addictive drugs and brain stimulation reward share common neural substrates.
- These shared circuits are involved in processing natural rewards.
- This convergence explains the habit-forming nature of both brain stimulation and addictive drugs.