The finding reinforces the view that dopamine enables memory for specific events.
Overall, the results point to some intriguing possibilities about how drug-associated memories might contribute to behaviors associated with addiction.
"An animal's memories or feelings about the environment are updated when the dopamine signal labels a particular event as important, new, and salient. Normally these memories help us to perform successful behaviors, but in our study, those memories were linked to the addictive drug.
When specific environmental events occur, such as the place or people associated with drug use, they are capable of cuing drug-associated memories or feelings that motivate continued drug use or relapse," concluded Dani.
The study has been published in the latest issue of the journal Neuron.
Source-ANI
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