FMRP and Cocaine-Induced Plasticity

In this video, Drs. Christopher Cowan and Laura Smith describe how the protein that is missing in Fragile X syndrome, FMRP, normally controls behavioral and synaptic responses to cocaine exposure. Without FMRP, multiple cocaine-induced behaviors are altered, and neurons in the nucleus accumbens, a brain region heavily influenced by abuse of drugs, show precocious enhancements in dendritic branching, as well as in synaptic number and strength. For more details, see Smith et al., Neuron 82(3): htt