While much of the addiction literature has focused on the dopaminergic system, other neurotransmitter systems are relevant to psychostimulant-induced plasticity and pharmacological and pharmacogenetic interventions for addiction has been addressed, including important distinctions between glutamatergic response of the mesocorticolimbic system to repeated cocaine or amphetamine exposure (Cobos et al., 2008; Haile et al., 2009; Kalivas and O’Brien, 2008; Knackstedt et al., 2009; Wolf, 1998; Xi and Gardner, 2008; Yahyavi-Firouz-Abadi and See, 2009). This review will focus on drug-related changes in the glutamatergic system. Thus, there is an anatomical basis for a close association between dopaminergic and glutamatergic molecular plasticity due to the synaptic triad ultrastructure, where DA and glutamate afferents converge on the same neuron with DA receptors preferentially on the neck of the spine and glutamate receptors on the spine head (Sesack et al., 2003). Thus, ascending dopaminergic input can shape synaptic integration of cortical and allocortical glutamatergic afferents.
