PI:  Prof. Sui Nan

Abstract:  Long period of addictive memory plays a key role in addictive psychological dependence. This study explored the relationship between addictive memory and psychological dependence in opioids abuse. It mainly included four parts: 1)behavioral research of learning- and memory-related psychological dependence; 2)involvement of memory- and motivation-related brain structures in the receptor mechanism of the psychological dependence; 3)cellular and molecular mechanism of long period of addictive memory; 4)effects of opioids in neurodevelopmental process of memory-related brain regions during embryo. We clarified the adaptive changes of hippocampus-centered memory system and nucleus accumbens-centered motivation system in drug addiction from levels of neural circuitry, neurotransmitters, cellular and molecular and neural development. Also, we examined the impact and mechanisms of the interaction between the two systems on psychological dependence and drug relapse, which led to a new progress in clinical treatment of opioids addiction.