Cocaine inverts rules for synaptic plasticity of glutamate transmission in the ventral tegmental area.

The manner in which drug-evoked synaptic plasticity affects reward circuits remains largely elusive. We found that cocaine reduced NMDA receptor excitatory postsynaptic currents and inserted GluA2-lacking AMPA receptors in dopamine neurons of mice. Consequently, a stimulation protocol pairing glutamate release with hyperpolarizing current injections further strengthened synapses after cocaine treatment. Our data suggest that early cocaine-evoked plasticity in the ventral tegmental area inverts the rules for activity-dependent plasticity, eventually leading to addictive behavior.