Biological psychiatry
-
Biological psychiatry · Dec 2006
Neonatal ventral hippocampal lesions potentiate amphetamine-induced increments in dopamine efflux in the core, but not the shell, of the nucleus accumbens.
In rats, neonatal ventral hippocampal lesions (NVHLs) result in the postpubertal emergence of alterations reminiscent of several features of schizophrenia, including increased responsivity to the behavioral effects of amphetamine (AMPH). The precise nature of presynaptic aspects of accumbal dopamine (DA) function in these alterations is however uncertain: previous studies have found that the exacerbated responses to AMPH of NVHL rats are associated with either decreased or unchanged DA efflux in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) as compared with shams. Because these studies investigated DA output in the whole NAc, it was considered of interest to examine the impact of NVHLs on DA transmission in NAc subregions involved in distinct aspects of goal-directed behavior. ⋯ The functional alterations in the NAc core induced by NVHLs provide a link between the hippocampal damage and striatal DA hyperactivity in schizophrenia.