title: Intrinsic plasticity: an emerging player in addiction.
abstract: Exposure to drugs of abuse, such as cocaine, leads to plastic changes in the activity of brain circuits, and a prevailing view is that these changes play a part in drug addiction. Notably, there has been intense focus on drug-induced changes in synaptic excitability and much less attention on intrinsic excitability factors (that is, excitability factors that are remote from the synapse). Accumulating evidence now suggests that intrinsic factors such as K+ channels are not only altered by cocaine but may also contribute to the shaping of the addiction phenotype.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas 75390-9011, USA.
authors.forename: Saïd
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kourrich
authors.affiliation: National Institute on Drug Abuse, Intramural Research Program, Baltimore, Maryland 21224, USA.
authors.forename: Donna J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Calu
authors.affiliation: 1] National Institute on Drug Abuse, Intramural Research Program, Baltimore, Maryland 21224, USA. [2] Solomon H. Snyder Neuroscience Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA.
authors.forename: Antonello
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bonci
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*