DRUGS OF ABUSE, REWARD COMPARISON, AND SELECTED STRAINS

先前的研究表明，选定的菌株可以用作 研究奖励的神经机制的工具 比较过程。特别值得一提的是，刘易斯大鼠的嗜好程度更高 对于滥用药物，它的作用是压倒自然的反应性 奖励，而药物不喜欢费舍尔大鼠，拉曼则不透 这些奖励比较过程。因此，我们假设 刘易斯和费舍尔分子特征的差异 大鼠对糖精CS反应的差异 味觉药物配对。拟议的研究将通过以下方式检验这一假设 使用行为、损伤和分子技术来检查 现象的概括性(具体目标一)、 Lewis大鼠和Fischer大鼠之间的反应差异(特异性 目标II)，以及特定神经底物在调节这一过程中的作用 差异(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).