Why do so many people relapse after leaving cocaine? A new study by the Hebrew University reveals that a specific “anti-re-reappected” cerebral circuit becomes hyperactive during the discomfort to find themselves and rejecting users to the drug. Surprisingly, this circuit can also serve as an integrated protection mechanism, offering a new hope for the treatment of drug addiction.
Cocaine dependence has long been understood as a standoff between reward and restraint. The dopamine rush keeps users hanging, while withdrawal triggers anxiety, depression and despair. But a new study by researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem reveals that it is not only the desire for pleasure but the aversion of the brain to pain – which plays a powerful role in relapse.
Directed by Professor Yonatan M. Kupchik and the Liran Levi doctoral student of the Faculty of Medicine, the study identifies an “anti-recompress” network specific to the depths of the brain which undergoes lasting changes during consumption, withdrawal and re-exposure to cocaine consumption. This glutamatergic network, located in the ventral pallidum, emerges as a key actor in dependence and as a promising target for future therapies.
The roller coasters inside the brain
Although the ventral pallidum is known to regulate pleasure and reward, this research highlights a less known group of neurons which remove the release of dopamine and amplify negative emotions. During abstinence, this anti-reaches network increases its embarrassment of intensification of activity and emotional distress. When cocaine is reintroduced, the network is quickly calm, strengthening the search and relief relapse cycle.
“It’s a switch,” said Professor Kupchik. “This network follows the emotional cost of abstinence. When it is very active, he can encourage someone to seek the medication again – just to escape negative feelings. »»
The study also shows that this brain circuit connects with other key centers involved in emotional regulation and the treatment of rewards. During withdrawal, these connections become stronger, increasing sensitivity to negative emotional states. When the drug returns, the system resets temporal distress.
Surprisingly, discomfort can serve a goal
In a striking discovery, the researchers discovered that when this anti-reversed circuit was inhibited, the preference of drugs and motivation have really increased. This suggests that the negative signals of the brain can serve a creation of a protective role of an internal brake which discourages excessive consumption of drugs by making it emotionally expensive.
A change in the paradigm of drug addiction treatment
While most current dependence therapies aim to alleviate the brain reward system, this study points to a different path: target the emotional pain in withdrawal. By potentially understanding and modulating the aversive signals of the brain, future treatments could better respond to the deep causes of the relapse.
Published by doctoral student Liran A. Levi and Professor Kupchik at the Imric Center for Addiction Research (ICARE) of Hebrew University, the study offers a new framework to understand dependence – not as the pursuit of pleasure, but as an escape of pain.
