Uncontrollable Impulses Pre-exist Coke Addiction

Sci. STKE, 6 March 2007
Vol. 2007, Issue 376, p. tw79
[DOI: 10.1126/stke.3762007tw79]

EDITORS' CHOICE
Neuroscience
Drugs, Dopamine, and Disposition
Peter Stern

Science, AAAS, Cambridge CB2 1LQ, UK

Individual differences in drug abuse reflect distinct behavioral and physiological traits. Dalley et al. found that, compared with controls, spontaneously impulsive rats had decreased dopamine D2/3 receptors in the nucleus accumbens even before exposure to cocaine. Trait impulsivity in rats was predictive of subsequent high rates of intravenous cocaine self-administration. Impulsivity is thus an important mediator of drug abuse vulnerability and not a consequence of chronic drug exposure.

J. W. Dalley, T. D. Fryer, L. Brichard, E. S. J. Robinson, D. E. H. Theobald, K. Lääne, Y. Peña, E. R. Murphy, Y. Shah, K. Probst, I. Abakumova, F. I. Aigbirhio, H. K. Richards, Y. Hong, J.-C. Baron, B. J. Everitt, T. W. Robbins, Nucleus accumbens D2/3 receptors predict trait impulsivity and cocaine reinforcement. Science 315, 1267-1270 (2007).


Citation: P. Stern, Drugs, Dopamine, and Disposition. Sci. STKE 2007, tw79 (2007).