Drug addiction relapse neurons identified

[El Doper Mean]

Glen M. Sizemore wrote:

> The behavioral effects of such stimuli have been known for 30 years. Funny
> how, when one finds some neurons whose firing corresponds to the presence of
> the stimuli, it is an Earth-shattering breakthrough. I guess the search for
> inner causes that began with animism is still going strong. Don't get me
> wrong, the neurobiological fact is interesting and may someday fit into some
> larger picture ("drug addiction relapse neurons" indeed), but where was all
> the hoopla when Goldberg was maintaining tens of thousands of lever presses
> for a single cocaine injection on second-order schedules (a related
> phenomenon)?
> 

The difference is how they tested it and what they could conclude from 
the information.

Nothing unusual, but it seems to be the first study which establishes 
that you can induce a pavlovian response in the long term, in mice, and 
moreover it is due to that center in particular. A lot of these findings 
aren't groundbreaking alone, but they confirm that mice have similar 
effects, so that when you're trying to interpret other results, it is 
more likely to ring true for people.