Correlation Games

Laser Therapy Switches Cocaine Addiction On and Off in Rats

Rats addicted to cocaine lost the craving when researchers used laser light to stimulate a specific part of their brains.
The same team of scientists also used the laser technique to trigger new cocaine addictions in rats. They say the therapy -- which targets the prefrontal cortex of the rat brain -- could point the way to a new method of treating the addiction in humans.
"When we turn on a laser light in the prelimbic region of the prefrontal cortex, the compulsive cocaine seeking is gone," study co-researcher Dr. Antonello Bonci, adjunct professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a university news release.

Guess which neurotransmitter stimulates the prelimbic region of the prefrontal cortex.