ACCUMBAL GLUTAMATE RECEPTORS IN COCAINE CONDITIONING

描述（改编自应用程序）：药物滥用已成为一个主要的社会 最大的医疗问题目前，据估计， 在美国有超过200万的吸毒者。临床研究报告称， 药物滥用者面临的一个主要问题是， 戒断的原因是他们对药物的“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，药物相关的线索可以获得强化性能， 经典条件作用然而，人们对它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 研究不同的神经系统和药物参与的分子机制 依赖腹侧纹状体的一部分， 以前被牵连在介导运动激活和加强 可卡因等精神兴奋剂的影响。另外研究 证明了神经元调节不同的学习和记忆， 兴奋性氨基酸（EAA）神经传递从皮层 边缘系统投射到这些纹状体区域调节这些功能。 此外，代谢型谷氨酸受体（mGluRs）是EAA的一种 在纹状体中发现的一种受体，似乎对 突触可塑性和学习。这些研究旨在调查 延髓核内EAA正性和代谢性受体的作用 可卡因诱导的环境特异性 条件反射拟议实验的两个主要目标是：1） 研究EAA受体在丘脑核亚区中的作用 调节可卡因条件反射2)来描述 EAA代谢型受体（mGluRs）在联合学习中存在于这个 条件反射从拟议的研究计划的结果可能会提供新的知识 神经解剖学基质和受体特异性参与 控制可卡因引起的条件反射

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.