DRUGS OF ABUSE, REWARD COMPARISON, AND SELECTED STRAINS

以前的研究表明，选择的菌株可以用作 研究负责奖励的神经机制的工具 比较过程。 特别是，刘易斯大鼠具有更大的 滥用药物，其作用是推翻对自然 奖励，而非药物偏好Fischer大鼠ramain不受影响 这些奖励比较过程。 因此，我们假设 刘易斯和费希尔分子特征的差异 大鼠介导了对糖精CS的反应差异， 味觉药物配对 拟议的研究将通过以下方式检验这一假设： 采用行为，病变和分子技术来检查 现象的一般性（具体目标一）， 刘易斯和费舍尔大鼠之间的反应差异（特异性 目的II），以及特定神经底物在介导这一过程中的作用 具体目标（三）。

Previous research has indicated that selected strains can be used as a tool for the study of the neural mechanisms responsible for reward comparison processes. In particular, Lewis rats have a greater avidity for drugs of abuse which serves to override responsiveness for natural rewards, while the drug non-preferring Fischer rats ramain impervious to these reward comparison processes. Thus, we hypothesize that the differences in the molecular characteristics between Lewis and Fischer rats mediate the difference in responding for a saccharin CS following taste-drug pairings. The proposed studies will test this hypothesis by employing behavioral, lesion, and molecular techniques to examine the generality of the phenomenon (Specific Aim I), the nature of the difference in responding between the Lewis and Fischer rats (Specific Aim II), and the role of specific neural substrates in mediating this difference (Specific Aim III).