Submitted on February 12, 2009
Revised on March 16, 2009
Accepted on March 16, 2009
Cocaine-induced LTP in the ventral tegmental area: new insights into mechanism and time course illuminate the cellular substrates of addiction
Mitra Heshmati1*
1 Johns Hopkins University
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: mitra{at}jhu.edu.
Previous work has shown that a single dose of cocaine can produce long-term potentiation (LTP) of the glutamatergic synapses received by dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA). This and other plastic changes in the brain's reward circuitry have been suggested to underlie addiction. Argilli et al. (2008) have provided new insights into cocaine-induced LTP, showing that it begins 3-5 hours after exposure, requires activation of a dopamine D5 / NMDA receptor cascade, and can be evoked by cocaine application directly to the VTA.
