3 research outputs found
Selective Enhancement of Dopamine Release in the Ventral Pallidum of Methamphetamine-Sensitized Mice
Drugs of abuse induce
sensitization, which is defined as enhanced
response to additional drug following a period of withdrawal. Sensitization
occurs in both humans and animal models of drug reinforcement and
contributes substantially to the addictive nature of drugs of abuse,
because it is thought to represent enhanced motivational wanting for
drug. The ventral pallidum, a key member of the reward pathway, contributes
to behaviors associated with reward, such as sensitization. Dopamine
inputs to the ventral pallidum have not been directly characterized.
Here we provide anatomical, neurochemical, and behavioral evidence
demonstrating that dopamine terminals in the ventral pallidum contribute
to reward in mice. We report subregional differences in dopamine release,
measured by <i>ex vivo</i> fast-scan cyclic voltammetry:
rostral ventral pallidum exhibits increased dopamine release and uptake
compared with caudal ventral pallidum, which is correlated with tissue
expression of dopaminergic proteins. We then subjected mice to a methamphetamine-sensitization
protocol to investigate the contribution of dopaminergic projections
to the region in reward related behavior. Methamphetamine-sensitized
animals displayed a 508% and 307% increase in baseline dopamine release
in the rostral and caudal ventral pallidum, respectively. Augmented
dopamine release in the rostral ventral pallidum was significantly
correlated with sensitized locomotor activity. Moreover, this presynaptic
dopaminergic plasticity occurred only in the ventral pallidum and
not in the ventral or dorsal striatum, suggesting that dopamine release
in the ventral pallidum may be integrally important to drug-induced
sensitization
Dryad-Lohr-etal-excelFSCV
This is an excel spreadsheet that shows all of the raw data collected for the fast scan cyclic voltammetry experiments. Tabs are used to delineate the various experiments
Dryad-Lohr-etal-westerns
These are all of the original images of the western blots in this manuscript. They are in a powerpoint file