Cocaine
can change the structure of learning and memory spots in brain only
within few hours of taking the drug, according to a new study conducted
by American researchers.
The study unveils how the drug experience is associated with rapid growth of structures linking memory and consequently the changes in behaviour.
Analysis of mice brain indicated that only within two hours of being injected with cocaine, the fast growth occurred in the frontal cortex which is responsible for controlling higher functions such as planning and decision-making, according to the report.
A team of researchers from University of California, Berkeley and UC San Francisco monitored the brain cells during the study to seek tiny protrusions called dendritic spines which are known as implicated organs in memory formation.
They applied a hi-tech laser scanning microscope to look inside the brains of living mice to hunt for the dendritic spines.
The mice were given the choice of two very different chambers, each with a different smell and surface texture.
According to the observation, mice switched preferences to the one where they had received the cocaine shot.
"This gives us a possible mechanism for how drug use fuels further drug-seeking behaviour," said the research leader Dr Linda Wilbrecht of the University of California at San Francisco.
"It is been observed that long-term drug users show decreased function in the frontal cortex in connection with mundane cues or tasks, and increased function in response to drug-related activity or information," she said.
"Their change in preference for the cocaine side correlated with gains in new persistent spines that appeared on the day they experienced cocaine," Wilbrecht concluded.
The experts claim that the recent study makes clear how addiction occurs and how it is learned by the brain.
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