SINGLE COCAINE HIGH OPENS ADDICTION WINDOW

A single exposure to cocaine triggers a weeklong surge of activity in a
brain region central to the development of addiction, according to a UC San
Francisco study of mice in Thursday's Nature. The first drug exposure
throws open a window of vulnerability that may make the brain acutely
responsive to subsequent exposures for a week to 10 days--in effect,
priming the brain for addiction. The exposure doubles the responsiveness of
dopamine neurons, which play a key role in the drug high and subsequent
craving, according to Dr. Antonello Bonci and his colleagues.