015 — (COS0051) A behavioral evaluation of the neural mechanisms underlying compulsive drug-seeking habits and addiction in mice

Rationale: Recently, drug addiction has been viewed as the endpoint of the transitions from initial voluntary drug use to the loss of control over this behavior, such that it becomes habitual and compulsive. This switch also represents a transition at the neural level from ventral to more dorsal domains of the striatum, mediated by its interconnecting dopaminergic circuitry. We aimed to investigate this hypothesis for drug addiction by assessing stereotyped behavior (a dorsal striatum-dependent behavior) in mice previously sensitized (a ventral striatum-dependent behavior) to cocaine.