Abstract
Chronic exposure to drugs of abuse induces countless modifications in brain physiology. However, the neurobiological adaptations specifically associated with the transition to addiction are unknown. Cocaine self-administration rapidly suppresses long-term depression (LTD), an important form of synaptic plasticity in the nucleus accumbens. Using a rat model of addiction, we found that animals that progressively develop the behavioral hallmarks of addiction have permanently impaired LTD, whereas LTD is progressively recovered in nonaddicted rats maintaining a controlled drug intake. By making drug seeking consistently resistant to modulation by environmental contingencies and consequently more and more inflexible, a persistently impaired LTD could mediate the transition to addiction.