ACCUMBAL GLUTAMATE RECEPTORS IN COCAINE CONDITIONING

描述(改编自《申请》)：滥用药物已成为一种主要的社会问题 以及世界上最大的医疗问题。目前，估计有 在美国有超过200万的经常吸毒者。临床研究报告称 吸毒者在这段时期面临的主要问题之一 禁欲的关键是他们对可能出现的药物的“渴望”的敏感性 在一个与吸毒有关的环境中。此外，行为研究 已经表明，与药物相关的线索可以通过 经典条件反射。然而，人们对糖尿病的生物学基础知之甚少。 线索引发的毒瘾。神经生物学研究的主要目标之一是 研究与药物有关的不同神经系统和分子机制 依赖。伏隔核作为腹侧纹状体的一部分，具有 先前被认为参与调节运动激活和增强 可卡因等精神刺激性药物的影响。此外，研究还表明， 证明伏隔神经调节不同的学习和记忆 大脑皮层兴奋性氨基酸(EAA)神经传递的功能 这些纹状体区域的边缘投射调节这些功能。 此外，代谢性谷氨酸受体(MGluRs)是EAA的一种 纹状体中发现的一种受体，似乎对 突触可塑性和学习。这些研究的目的是调查 兴奋性氨基酸变力和代谢性受体在伏核内的作用 在可卡因诱导的环境特异性的获得和表达中 条件反射。拟议实验的两个主要目标是：1) 伏隔核亚区内EAA受体的作用研究 在调节可卡因条件作用方面。2)描述的功能角色 EAA代谢性受体(MGluRs)在联想学习中的作用 条件反射。拟议的研究计划的结果可能会提供新的知识 神经解剖学基础和受体特异性参与的研究进展 可卡因诱导的条件反射的控制。

Description (Adapted from Application): Drug abuse has become a major social and medical problem in the world. Presently, it is estimated that there are over 2 million regular drug users in the USA. Clinical studies have reported that one of the major problems confronted by substance abusers during periods of abstinence is their susceptibility to "cravings" for the drug that may arise in an environment associated with drug use. In addition, behavioral studies have shown that drug-related cues can acquire reinforcing properties through classical conditioning. However, little is known about the biological basis of cue-elicited drug craving. One of the main goals of neurobiological research is to study the different neural systems and molecular mechanisms involved in drug dependence. The nucleus accumbens, as part of the ventral striatum, have previously been implicated in mediating the motor activation and reinforcing effects of psychostimulant drugs such as cocaine. In addition, studies have demonstrated that the accumbens regulates different learning and memory functions and that excitatory amino acid (EAA) neurotransmission from cortical and limbic projections to these striatal regions modulate these functions. Furthermore, the metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluRs) is a type of EAA receptor found in the striatum that seems to have modulatory effects in synaptic plasticity and learning. These studies are aimed to investigate the role of EAA inotropic and metabotropic receptors within the nucleus accumbens in the acquisition and expression of cocaine-induced environment-specific conditioning. The two major goals of the proposed experiments are: 1) to investigate the role of EAA receptors within the nucleus accumbens subregions in mediating cocaine conditioning. 2) to characterize the functional role of EAA metabotropic receptors (mGluRs) in the associative learning present in this conditioning. Results from the proposed research plan may provide new knowledge on the neuroanatomical substrates and receptor specificity involved in the control of cocaine-elicited conditioning.