Neonatal exposure to nicotine alters the reward circuity in the brains of newborn mice, increasing their preference for the drug in later adulthood, report researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine in a study published “in press” April 24, 2019 in Biological Psychiatry.
A UC San Diego School of Medicine team of scientists, headed by senior author Davide Dulcis, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry, with colleagues at Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System and Michigan State University, found that exposure to nicotine in the first few weeks of life (through maternal lactation) induced a variety of long-term neurological changes in young mice.
Specifically, it caused a form of neuroplasticity that resulted in increased numbers of modified neurons in the ventral tagmental area (VTA) of the brain following nicotine re-exposure as adults. These neurons displayed a different biochemistry than other neurons, including greater receptivity to nicotine and a greater likelihood of subsequent addictive behavior.