Control Over Stress Accelerates Extinction of Drug Seeking Via Prefrontal Cortical Activation.

ABSTRACT: Extinction is a form of inhibitory learning viewed as an essential process in suppressing conditioned responses to drug cues, yet there is little information concerning experiential variables that modulate its formation. Coping factors play an instrumental role in determining how adverse life events impact the transition from casual drug use to addiction. Here we provide evidence in rat that prior exposure to controllable stress accelerates the extinction of cocaine-seeking behavior relative to uncontrollable or no stress exposure. Subsequent experimentation using high-speed optogenetic tools determined if the infralimbic region (IL) of the ventral medial prefrontal cortex mediates the impact of controllable stress on cocaine-seeking behavior. Photoinhibition of pyramidal neurons in the IL

SUBMITTER: Baratta MV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4418028 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature