administration) it elicits a more intense “high” than when it enters the brain more slowly (snorted) even when the cocaine doses given to participants are adjusted to produce the same levels of DA transporter blockade in the brain, which is the mechanism by which cocaine increases DA and produces reward (22). The dependence of drugs’ rewarding effects on their ability to induce “fast” and large DA increases probably reflects the fact that it mimics the fast and large DA increases associated with phasic DA firing that are associated in the brain with conveying information about reward and saliency (23).
