EFFECT OF ALCOHOL ON MECHANISMS OF SYNAPTIC PLASTICITY

酒精滥用（中毒、耐受性发展、身体 依赖）也许是美国最严重的毒品问题 今天 酒精通过对神经的作用产生主要影响 突触，很可能许多行为变化 与其滥用有关的是由于其对机制的影响， 负责突触可塑性。 因此，长期目标是 该项目旨在确定酒精影响 突触可塑性产生中毒，耐受或 戒断依赖 为了实现这一目标，小龙虾神经肌肉 表现出很大突触可塑性的连接 作为一个模型系统来描述 电生理学和生物物理学机制 改变突触可塑性从而产生行为变化。 我们 这三是的的具体目标是： 酒精影响突触前和突触后的机制 易化，强直后增强，长时程增强， 突触前抑制和突触后敏感性 神经肌肉接头取自对照动物，取自动物 对慢性暴露产生耐受性， 在长期接触后出现戒断依赖。

Alcohol abuse (intoxication, tolerance development, physical dependency) is perhaps the most significant drug problem in America today. Alcohol has a primary effect via its actions on nerve synapses and it is probable that many of the behavioral changes associated with its abuse are due to its effects on mechanisms responsible for synaptic plasticity. Hence, the long term goal of this project is to define the mechanisms by which alcohol affects synaptic plasticity to produce intoxication, tolerance or withdrawal dependence. To attain this goal, crayfish neuromuscular junctions which exhibit much synaptic plasticity have been- developed as a model system to characterize the electrophysiological and biophysical mechanisms by which alcohol alters synaptit plasticity to produce behavioral changes. Our specific aims for this three yea: proposal are to characterize the pre- and postsynaptic mechanisms by which alcohol affects facilitation, post-tetanic potentiation, long-term potentiation, presynaptic inhibition, and postsynaptic sensitivity at neuromuscular junctions taken from control animals, from animals undergoing tolerance to chronic exposure, and from animals undergoing withdrawal dependence following chronic exposure.