This review aims to explore the evolution of research on the neurobiology of addiction across the six editions of Eric Kandel’s Principles of Neural Science , one of the most comprehensive and well-known textbooks on neurobiology, published in 1981, 1985, 1991, 2000, 2012, and 2021. To encourage a critical reading of this historical review, we also summarize the state of the art in addiction research in the years preceding the publication of each edition. Even though addiction was mentioned as a crucial societal problem since the beginning, the manual did not explain it until the fourth edition. Decades before, several psychological hypotheses had already been integrated with neurobiology, emphasizing the role of dopamine and other biogenic amines, involvement of forebrain and mesencephalic areas, and pinpointing the neural correlates of psychological terms such as tolerance, dependence, craving, and others. Progressively, the neurobiological description of addiction transitioned from the hypothalamus to the basal ganglia, and, conceptually, from homeostasis to motivation, learning, and habit acquisition. Our intention with this review is to assess the evolution of addiction research in neuroscience, and also to show the strengths and weaknesses of how state-of-the-art research is integrated into specialized textbooks.
Santiago-Martínez et al. (Wed,) studied this question.