Vincent David and Daniel Béracochéa, (Team MINDS), together with Mark Walton (Oxford), edited a Frontiers Ebook featuring14 articles and 39 authors focusing on cognitive processes in the addicted brain. The corresponding Research Topic is already one of the most viewed in the Addictive Disorders Section of Frontiers in Psychiatry (currently 56 000 views).
Drugs of abuse have well-known habit-forming actions, but recent evidence suggest that they may have in fact long-lasting effects on different forms of interactions between memory systems. For instance, drug-experienced rodents show hippocampal deficits and will use preferentially striatum-dependent learning strategies in navigational tasks. Drug-induced cognitive biases lead to specific forms of cognitive rigidity which could play a critical yet overlooked role in addictions, and are likely to preclude the clinical efficiency of treatments. Decision processes and working memory are also at risk during transition phases, although it remains to be determined whether withdrawal-induced alterations persist during protracted abstinence. The aim of this research topic is thus to provide an overview of the current work investigating the long-term impact of drug use on learning and decision processes, and how these cognitive biases could contribute to the persistence of addictive behaviors.
Download the Ebook here:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00030/full