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SUMMARY:Restoring executive control in drug addiction through the disrupti
 on on memories - Dr. Amy Milton\, Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience I
 nstitute / Department of Experimental Psychology\, Cambridge
DTSTART:20090930T094500Z
DTEND:20090930T101500Z
UID:TALK18695@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Hannah Critchlow
DESCRIPTION:This talk is part of the Cambridge Clinical Neuroscience and M
 ental Health Symposium\, 29th - 30th September 2009 at West Road Concert H
 all. This event is free to attend for cambridge neuroscientists although r
 egistration is required. To register\, and for further information\, pleas
 e visit: http://www.neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/cnmhs/\n\nAbstract: Drug addict
 ion is a chronic disorder that is characterised by compulsive drug use and
  an extended propensity of addicted individuals to relapse. Several promin
 ent theories of addiction emphasise the loss of control over drug use in a
 ddiction\, postulating that drug-seeking behaviour becomes dominated by su
 bcortically mediated habitual representations\, rather than the goal-direc
 ted behaviour mediated by the frontal cortices. These subcortical represen
 tations are driven by the presentation of environmental stimuli that have 
 previously been predictive of drug\, and therefore relapse to drug-seeking
  is automatic and unconscious in the presence of these drug-associated sti
 muli. \n\nThe capacity of drug-associated stimuli to activate key limbic a
 reas implicated in relapse has been demonstrated in functional imaging stu
 dies\, and in animal models of addiction. As drug-associated stimuli are p
 otent precipitators of relapse\, any therapy that could disrupt the associ
 ation between the environmental stimulus (CS) and the drug would be hypoth
 esised to reduce the risk of relapse. This has informed cue-exposure (‘e
 xtinction’) therapies\, but these have had limited long-term success in 
 treating addiction. An alternative technique is the targeting of memory re
 consolidation\, the process by which memories require restabilisation foll
 owing their destabilisation at retrieval. \n\nWe have investigated the mec
 hanisms underlying the reconsolidation of CS-drug memories\, characterisin
 g the dependence of this process upon the NMDA subtype of glutamate recept
 or\, adrenergic receptors and the immediate early gene zif268. We ha
 ve also deconstructed animal models of relapse in addiction\, demonstratin
 g that treatments based upon the disruption of reconsolidation can disrupt
  all three ways in which pavlovian CSs can influence instrumental relapse 
 behaviour. Therefore\, the administration of amnestic agents\, in conjunct
 ion with a CS-drug memory retrieval session\, may provide a novel form of 
 pro-abstinence / anti-relapse therapy for addiction\, by reducing the domi
 nance of subcortically-mediated memory representations over behaviour.\n\n
 References\nMilton AL\, Lee JLC\, Butler VJ\, Gardner R & Everitt BJ (2008
 ) Intra-amygdala and systemic antagonism of NMDA receptors prevents the re
 consolidation of drug-associated memory and impairs subsequently both nove
 l and previously acquired drug-seeking behaviors. J Neurosci 28: 8230-7.\n
 \nMilton AL\, Lee JLC & Everitt BJ (2008) Reconsolidation of appetitive me
 mories for drug reinforcement is dependent on -adrenergic receptors. Le
 arn Mem 15: 88-92.\n\nLee JLC\, Milton AL & Everitt BJ (2006) Cue-induced 
 cocaine seeking and relapse are reduced by disruption of drug memory recon
 solidation. J Neurosci 26: 5881-7.\n\nBiosketch: Amy Milton is a Departmen
 tal Lecturer in the Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute\, in t
 he Department of Experimental Psychology\, University of Cambridge. She gr
 aduated from Newnham College\, Cambridge\, with an M.A. in Neuroscience be
 fore undertaking a Ph.D. with Professor Barry Everitt\, investigating the 
 neuropharmacological mechanisms that underlie memory processes relevant to
  drug addiction\, obesity\, and post-traumatic stress disorder. After comp
 leting her doctorate\, she became a Research Fellow at Downing College\, C
 ambridge. Her particular research interest is in characterising the neuroc
 hemical mechanisms that underlie the reconsolidation of different memory t
 ypes\, with a translational view of applying such knowledge to the develop
 ment of reconsolidation-based treatments for neuropsychiatric disorders in
  humans.\n\n\n
LOCATION:West Road Concert Hall
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