Gilles Martin

The hallmark of all drugs of abuse, including alcohol, is their powerful addictive properties that linger for years after the last drug intake. It has been proposed that addiction and relapse may both result from altered mnemonic processes caused by changes in the strength of synaptic communication between nerve cells, the main objective of my research.

Our main focus is to understand how early alcohol exposure (i.e. binge alcohol drinking) alters the way neurons and interneurons from the nucleus accumbens, a brain region responsible for alcohol rewarding properties, process information relevant to addiction.