Study Assesses How the Brain Learns Cocaine Addiction

Researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine have described how proteins linked to learning forge brain pathways in response to the pleasure molecule dopamine. The drug-induced increase in dopamine is key to the study of cocaine addiction, and the finding may signal new treatments for the ailment. “The broad question was why and how cocaine strengthened certain circuits in the brain long term, effectively re-wiring the brain for addiction,” one researcher said. Click here to read the full article.