Brain Stimulation in Rats Suggest New, Unconventional
Therapy for Human Cocaine Addiction
By stimulating one part of the brain with laser light,
researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Ernest Gallo
Clinic and Research Center at UC San Francisco (UCSF) have shown that they can
wipe away addictive behavior in rats – or conversely turn non-addicted rats
into compulsive cocaine seekers.
“When we turn on a laser light in the prelimbic region of
the prefrontal cortex, the compulsive cocaine seeking is gone,” said Antonello
Bonci, MD, scientific director of the intramural research program at the NIH’s
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), where the work was done. Bonci is also
an adjunct professor of neurology at UCSF and an adjunct professor at Johns
Hopkins University.