Vagus nerve stimulation reduces cocaine seeking and alters plasticity in the extinction network.

Drugs of abuse cause changes in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and associated regions that impair inhibitory control over drug-seeking. Breaking the contingencies between drug-associated cues and the delivery of the reward during extinction learning reduces rates of relapse. Here we used vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) to induce targeted synaptic plasticity to facilitate extinction of appetitive behaviors and to reduce relapse.