The addiction vulnerability genes identified in this work contribute to the growing body of data that implicates cell adhesion and related memory-like and other cognitive processes in addiction. Studies that alter reconsolidation and other memory-related processes using knockout mice, protein synthesis inhibitors and/or pharmacologic treatments demonstrate powerful influences on addictions [288, 289]. This empirical evidence enriches theoretical work that increasingly recognizes memory-like features for addiction [36] and work that implicates memory-associated brain regions in relapse to addiction. Such work also complements clinical observations which document that addicts’ enhanced vulnerabilities to substance abuse relapse can persist for decades after their last prior use of addictive substances.
