What about me ...? The PVT: a role for the paraventricular thalamus (PVT) in drug-seeking behavior

The lack of effective pharmacotherapies to prevent relapse to drug taking emphasizes the importance of fully characterizing the brain pathways responsible for this behavior (Kalivas and McFarland, 2003). Recently, there have been attempts to more fully understand the brain circuitry responsible for drug-seeking behavior, beyond the well-characterized nodes such as the prefrontal cortex (PFC), nucleus accumbens (NAC), and ventral tegmental area (VTA). In this respect, the review of Martin-Fardon and Boutrel (2012) is important and timely and should serve to stimulate continued focus on the paraventricular thalamus (PVT) in the addiction field. Indeed, their review is an appropriate addition to the recent article “Emerging, re-emerging, and forgotten areas of the reward-circuit” (McGinty et al., 2011).