University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
Doi
Abstract
Prolonged abstinence from cocaine leads to profound changes in brain reward circuitry that contribute to relapse vulnerability. Neuroimaging studies reveal a generalized (resting state) dampening of prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens activity which persists after extended periods of abstinence and is linked with impaired executive control in substance use disorder (SUD). Interestingly, however, these same brain regions also show heightened activation to cocaine-related stimuli following prolonged abstinence concomitant with increased drug seeking. Opposing context-dependent shifts in neural signaling following prolonged cocaine abstinence are also observed at the neurocircuit and network level. Given these findings, an emerging strategy for treating SUD uses noninvasive brain stimulation to normalize drug-induced disruptions in brain activity. Our lab recently published data showing the efficacy of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) for reversing cocaine-induced deficits in neural signaling and restoring behavioral flexibility. Three specific aims were completed to investigate the role of the prelimbic cortex to nucleus accumbens core circuit in cocaine-seeking behaviors following short or prolonged abstinence and the feasibility of tACS to modulate oscillatory dynamics and incubated cocaine seeking.Doctor of Philosoph
