Innovative Study Reveals How Addiction Hijacks Brain Functions

Mount Sinai researchers, in collaboration with scientists at Rockefeller University, have discovered how cocaine and morphine hijack the brain’s natural reward systems. Their study, published in the journal Science on April 18, provides new insights into the brain’s neural mechanisms involved in drug addiction. This breakthrough could enhance fundamental research, clinical practices, and the development of potential treatments for addiction.

“While this field has been explored for decades, our study is the first to demonstrate that psychostimulants and opioids engaged and alter functioning of the same brain cells that are responsible for processing natural rewards,” explains senior author Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, Nash Family Professor of Neuroscience, Director of The Friedman Brain Institute, and Dean for Academic Affairs of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Chief Scientific Officer of the Mount Sinai Health System. “These findings provide an explanation for how these drugs can interfere with normal brain function and how that interference becomes magnified with increasing drug exposure to ultimately redirect behavior compulsively towards drugs —a hallmark of addiction pathology.”