The addicted brain

Drugs of abuse all commandeer the brain's natural reward circuitry. Stimulation of this pathway reinforces behaviors, ensuring that whatever one has done, he'll want to do it again. Repeated exposures to such drugs induces long-lasting adaptations in the brain's chemistry and architecture, altering how individual neurons in the brain's reward pathway process information and interact with one another. Understanding how chronic exposure to drugs of abuse reshapes an addict's brain could lead to novel, more broadly effective ways to correct the cellular and molecular aberrations that lie at the heart of all addiction.