Cocaine hijacks a brain circuit that naturally supports flexible behavior

Researchers person identified a encephalon circuit that usually supports flexible behaviour but is recruited by cocaine to thrust progressively rigid and repetitive behavior. Published successful the diary Current Biology, the findings amusement that shifting the equilibrium betwixt opposing neural pathways tin either beforehand behavioral rigidity or, conversely, rapidly interrupt cocaine-driven repetitive behaviour and reconstruct a broader scope of actions, offering caller penetration into the encephalon mechanisms underlying compulsive and stereotyped behavior.