Incubation of cocaine craving coincides with changes in dopamine terminal neurotransmission

Relapse to drug use is one of the major challenges in treating substance use disorders. Exposure to drug-related cues and contexts triggers drug craving, which drives cocaine seeking, and increases the probability of relapse. Clinical and animal studies have shown a progressive intensification of cocaine seeking and craving that develops over the course of abstinence, a phenomenon commonly referred to as incubation of cocaine craving. Although the neurobiology underlying incubation of cocaine craving has been examined – particularly within the context of glutamate plasticity– the extent to which increased cocaine craving engenders mesolimbic dopamine (DA) changes has received relatively little attention. To assess whether incubation of cocaine craving is associated with alterations in DA terminal neurotransmission in the nucleus accumbens core (NAc), we used ex vivo fast scan cyclic voltammetry in female and male rats to assess DA dynamics following short access, long access, or intermittent access to cocaine self-administration followed by 28 days of abstinence. Results indicated that both long access and intermittent access to cocaine produced robust incubation of cocaine craving, which was associated with increases in cocaine potency. In addition, intermittent access self-administration also produced a robust increase in DA uptake rate at baseline. In contrast, short access to cocaine did not engender incubation of cocaine craving, nor produce changes in DA neurotransmission. Together these observations indicate that incubation of cocaine craving coincides with changes in DA transmission, suggesting that underlying changes in mesolimbic DA signaling may contribute to the progressive intensification of drug craving that occurs across periods of abstinence.