Most people wouldn't think twice after seeing sugar spilled on a counter. But for someone with a history of cocaine use, this visual cue could trigger powerful associations with their past drug use and a compulsive urge to seek the drug. Certain circuits within the brain help to form natural associations between one's experiences and the context in which those experiences occur.
These associations play a critical role in the orchestration of adaptive learning. When addictive substances are introduced, this coupling mechanism can be hijacked so that the drug-taking behavior becomes associated with cues, such as people, places or situations, linked to the drug experience. These drug-context associations become critical factors that contribute to one's relapse vulnerability.
In a recent publication in Nature Communications, a research team at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) led by Department of Neuroscience chairman Christopher Cowan, Ph.D., identified a mechanism by which these drug-context associations are regulated by a small population of cells in the nucleus accumbens.
The nucleus accumbens is where drug-dependent dopamine increases are associated with their rewarding effects. The MUSC team sought to understand how a regulatory factor, neuronal PAS domain protein 4, or NPAS4, controls the formation and maintenance of drug-context associations. This study also revealed how NPAS4 affects future drug-taking using a mouse model.
"These drug-context associations .