Drug Abuse and the RAS

Abstract

Drug abuse only takes place during waking. We only experience withdrawal or relapse to drug abuse when we are awake. Furthermore, higher motor activation while awake has been associated with greater addiction liability. The ventral tegmental area (VTA), a key neural substrate for the modulation of psychostimulant abuse, is modulated by cholinergic reticular activating system (RAS) output from the laterodorsal tegmental (LDT) and pedunculopontine (PPN) nuclei.