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Behavioral contingencies determine changes in drug‐induced neurotransmitter turnover
Author(s) -
Smith James E.,
Dworkin Steven I.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
drug development research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.582
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1098-2299
pISSN - 0272-4391
DOI - 10.1002/ddr.430200308
Subject(s) - ventral tegmental area , neuroscience , substantia nigra , neurotransmitter , neurotransmitter systems , psychology , muscarinic acetylcholine receptor , reinforcement , stimulation , cholinergic , neurotransmitter receptor , dopamine , central nervous system , receptor , medicine , dopaminergic , social psychology
Evidence from several research areas suggests that response‐dependent and independent presentation of environmental events have different neurobiological consequences. Investigations of neurotransmitter turnover rates and cholinergic muscarinic receptor densities in brain regions of rats receiving contingent and noncontingent intravenous morphineresulted in the identification of two neuronal networks that are involved in response dependent morphine presentation. These circuits are concordant with brain regions showing increased glucose utilization in animals receiving response‐dependent electrical stimulation of either the substantia nigra or ventral tegmental area. These data indicate substantial differences between contingent and noncontingent presentation of environmental events and suggest that neurobiological investigations of reinforcement that use response independent delivery of a putative reinforcer must be interpreted with some caution.