Two recent papers,both from researchers of the Institute Pasteur(France),have shed light on the mechanisms governing nicotine addiction.Not only:according to researchers,nicotine is able to improve the cognitive function in mice.Data reported by Maskos and co-workers in Nature1 show that nicotine's addiction and the development of the cognitive functions are both phenomena linked to the presence of the same specific molecule,the B2 subunit of the nicotine receptor,expressed exclusively in the midbrain ventral tegmental area(VTA)of the mice brain.Mice lacking the VTA nicotine receptors were no more subjected to nicotine addiction.
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