Cocaine hijacks a brain circuit that naturally supports flexible behavior

Researchers have identified a brain circuit that normally supports flexible behavior but is recruited by cocaine to drive increasingly rigid and repetitive behavior. Published in the journal Current Biology, the findings show that shifting the balance between opposing neural pathways can either promote behavioral rigidity or, conversely, rapidly interrupt cocaine-driven repetitive behavior and restore a broader range of actions, offering new insight into the brain mechanisms underlying compulsive and stereotyped behavior.

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