The Editors of Learning & Memory are pleased to bring you this special issue covering the relationship between mechanisms of addiction and learning and memory.
Drug use and addiction are major public health problems that affect millions in the U.S. and place enormous burdens on society. The abuse of tobacco, alcohol, and illegal drugs exacts more than $740 billion annually in costs related to crime, lost work productivity, and health care. Developing successful treatments requires an in-depth understanding of the brain mechanisms underlying addiction, drug-seeking, and relapse. Over the past decades, evidence from multiple levels of analysis has converged to suggest that the addicted brain co-opts the neural mechanisms of learning and memory that normally support reward-based learning behaviors. In addition, mounting evidence indicates that exposure to addictive substances can create enduring changes in brain structure and function that are thought to underlie the transition to addiction.
This special issue brings together 13 research and review articles from leaders in the field of addiction research and covers the relationship between mechanisms of addiction and learning and memory from behavioral, circuits, and molecular approaches. We believe this issue represents an important contribution to the field and it will be featured at the annual meeting of the Pavlovian Society in Iowa City, IA, the 17th Annual Meeting of the Molecular and Cellular Cognition Society, and the 48th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego, CA.