SIGHTS and smells that remind addicts of a previous high can induce strong cravings and make quitting tough. Now the neurons responsible for these 鈥渁ssociation memories鈥� have been deactivated in rats.
Bruce Hope and colleagues at the in Baltimore, Maryland, studied rats engineered so that their neurons released a specific enzyme whenever they produced a protein called Fos, which only happens when neurons are highly activated. This allowed them to shut down Fos-producing neurons, by adding a drug that works only when the enzyme is present.
When the researchers trained addicted rats to associate a particular setting with cocaine, certain neurons became highly activated and produced Fos. The researchers then shut down the neurons, and this seemed to erase the association (Nature Neuroscience, ). They conclude that they had successfully deactivated the neurons involved in association.
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Hope is now looking for similar molecules in humans to provide the basis for investigating such associations in people.