Neurobiological Mechanism of Drug-associated Memories and Its Clinic Intervention

Relapse behavior after long-term abstinence is the key problem of addiction treatment. A major factor to induce relapse is the persistence of maladaptive drug-associated memories. Persistent changes in structure and function of prefrontal cortex-mesolimbic dopamine system caused by chronic drug abusing, lead to the formation of pathological drug-associated memories. This article reviews addiction with a focus on how it can be conceptualised as a disorder of maladaptive memory, considering the neural basis of drug-associated memories during the initial phase, the habituation phase and the maintenance phase of addictive behavior. The present review summarizes the clinical intervention methods of drug-associated memories in recent years including extinction training, extinction in multiple contexts to facilitate extinction and reconsolidation intervention to disrupt drug-associated memories directly, and the application of virtual reality technology and neuromodulation methods in addiction intervention. The intervention methods combined memory reconsolidation with virtual reality technology or neuromodulation methods are prospected to target drug-associated memories, providing new methods and new ideas to treat addiction in future clinical researches.