Local Hippocampal Methamphetamine-Induced Reinforcement
Open Access
- 1 January 2009
- journal article
- Published by Frontiers Media SA in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
Abstract
Drug abuse and addiction are major problems in the United States. In particular methamphetamine (METH) use has increased dramatically. A greater understanding of how METH acts on the brain to induce addiction may lead to better therapeutic targets for this problem. The hippocampus is recognized as an important structure in learning and memory, but is not typically associated with drug reinforcement or reward processes. Here, the focus is on the hippocampus which has been largely ignored in the addiction literature as compared to the nucleus accumbens (NAc), ventral tegmental area (VTA), and prefrontal cortex (PFC). The results show that METH administered unilaterally via a microdialysis probe to rats’ right dorsal hippocampus will induce drug-seeking (place preference) and drug-taking (lever-pressing) behavior. Furthermore, both of these responses are dependent on local dopamine (DA) receptor activation, as they are impaired by a selective D1/D5 receptor antagonist. The results suggest that the hippocampus is part of the brain’s reward circuit that underlies addiction.Keywords
This publication has 92 references indexed in Scilit:
- Hippocampus Leads Ventral Striatum in Replay of Place-Reward InformationPLoS Biology, 2009
- Differences in performance between Sprague–Dawley and Fischer 344 rats in positive reinforcement tasksPharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, 2008
- Dorsal hippocampal dopamine receptors are involved in mediating ethanol state-dependent memoryLife Sciences, 2007
- Hippocampal Synaptic Plasticity and Water Maze Learning in Cocaine Self‐Administered RatsAnnals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2006
- Dopamine transporter blockade increases LTP in the CA1 region of the rat hippocampus via activation of the D3 dopamine receptorLearning & Memory, 2006
- Dorsal, but not ventral, hippocampal lesions disrupt cocaine place conditioningNeuroReport, 2003
- Comparison of dopamine and noradrenaline release in mouse prefrontal cortex, striatum and hippocampus using microdialysisNeuroscience Letters, 1999
- Mesolimbic dopaminergic neurons innervating the hippocampal formation in the rat: a combined retrograde tracing and immunohistochemical studyBrain Research, 1994
- Electrical self-stimulation of dentate gyrus granule cellsBehavioral and Neural Biology, 1984
- Dentate gyrus granule cells and memory: Electrical stimulation disrupts memory for places rewardedBehavioral and Neural Biology, 1982