Potentiation of the effects of reward-related stimuli by dopaminergic-dependent mechanisms in the nucleus accumbens

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Three experiments examined the behavioural, pharmacological and neural specificity of the previously reported potentiation of responding with conditioned reinforcement following intra-accumbensd-amphetamine, by studying the effects of intraaccumbens dopamine (DA) and noradrenaline, using an acquisition of a new response procedure. In experiment 1, the effects of intra-cerebral DA infusions (5, 20, 50 µg/2 µl) were compared in four conditions: (i) intra-accumbens DA following positive pairing of the conditioned stimulus (CS) and water during training; (ii) as (i) but also following a systemic dose of the DA receptor antagonist alpha-flupenthixol; (iii) intra-accumbens DA following random pairing of the CS and water during training; and (iv) as (i) but with intra-caudate rather than intra-accumbens DA. The results showed that only with intra-accumbens DA in the positive pairing condition was there a significant dose-dependent increase in responding. In experiment 2, the effects of a higher range of doses (20, 100, 200 µg) and smaller infusion volume (5, 25, 50 µg/l µl) of intra-accumbens DA were studied, in comparison with a similar range of doses (5, 25, 50 µg/l µl) of intra-accumbens noradrenaline (NA). Only DA produced a selective, dose-dependent increase in responding with conditioned reinforcement. In experiment 3 neurotoxic lesions of the dorsal noradrenergic bundle (DNAB) using 6-hydroxydopamine producing profound (about 90%) depletion of cortical and nucleus accumbens NA levels had no effect on the increased responding with conditioned reinforcement produced by intra-accumbensd-amphetamine (3, 10, 30 µg/l µl). The results are discussed in terms of the neurochemical mediation of the potentiation of the effects of conditioned reinforcers byd-amphetamine and the role of DA-dependent mechanisms of the nucleus accumbens in reward-related processes.

This publication has 21 references indexed in Scilit: