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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Jun 5.
Published in final edited form as: Neuron. 2011 Feb 24;69(4):650–663. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2011.01.017

Table I.

Key forms of drug-evoked synaptic plasticity

Brain area Postsynaptic cell Transmissi on Drug treatment required Induction Expression Examples In the literature3
VTA DA neurons excitatory 1 injection of cocaine, and other addictive drugs, as well as acute stress Activation of NMDAR on DA neurons and D1-like receptors, presumably on excitatory afferents Increase of AMPAR/NMDAR and rectification: insertion of GluA2-lacking AMPARs and decrease of NMDAR function (Ungless et al., 2001) (Saal et al., 2003) (Bellone and Lüscher, 2006) (Mameli et al., 2011)
DA neurons inhibitory 1 injection of morphine, cocaine, nicotine and stress Nitric oxyde Decreased GABA release. (Nugent et al., 2007) (Nugent et al., 2009)
DA neurons excitatory Only present in slices of mice that have received cocaine injection mGluR1 Removel of GluA2-lacking AMPARs (Bellone & Lüscher, 2006) (Mameli et al., 2007)
DA neurons inhibitory 5 daily injections of cocaine BDNF Decrease of the number of GABAA receptors (Liu et al., 2005)
NAc MSN excitatory Weeks after several days of cocaine self-administration (incubation of craving) GluA2 lacking AMPARs (Conrad et al., 2008)
MSN excitatory 7 injections of cocaine, followed by one week of withdrawal & one challenge injection Decrease of AMPAR/NM DAR ratio NMDAR dependent LTD, silent synapses (Thomas et al., 2001)
MSN excitatory 5 daily injections, followed by 10–14 days of withdrawal Increase of AMPAR/NMDAR ratio (Kourrich et al., 2007)
MSN excitatory Several injections of cocaine inhibit mGluR5 LTD
Also 24h after a single exposure to cocaine		 Post mGluR5 Presynaptic via endocannabinoids (Moussawi et al., 2009)
MSN (D2 expressing) excitatory Blocked 24h after oneinjection of cocaine TrpV1 channel Postsynaptic (Grueter 2010)
Medial PFC Pyramidal neurons excitatory 3 week withdrawal and then cue presentations Cue induced decrease AMPAR/NMDAR (Van den Oever et al., 2008)
Layer V pyramidal neurons Inhibitory/excit atory 7 daily injections, followed by 5–17 days of withdrawal BDNF-dependent decrease of GABAA transmission facilitated LTP (Lu et al., 2010)