Infralimbic Prefrontal Cortex is Responsible for Inhibiting Cocaine Seeking in Extinguished Rats

The infralimbic cortex and accumbens shell appear to be recruited by extinction learning because inactivation of these structures prior to extinction training did not alter cocaine seeking. Together, these findings suggest that a neuronal network involving the infralimbic cortex and accumbens shell is recruited by extinction training to suppress cocaine seeking…Interestingly, however, if prefrontal cortex is electrically stimulated during abstinence, cocaine seeking is reduced in the first extinction session (Levy et al., 2007), suggesting that electrical stimulation of prefrontal cortex may mimic extinction training and/or that extinction training enhances activity in prefrontal cortex.

Read More