Neuroplasticity in the Mesolimbic System Induced by Natural Reward and Subsequent Reward Abstinence

Abstract

BACKGROUND-Natural reward and drugs of abuse converge on the mesolimbic system, where drugs of abuse induce neuronal alterations. Here, we tested plasticity in this system following natural reward and the subsequent impact on drug responses.

Effect of GABRA2 Genotype on Development of Incentive-Motivation Circuitry in a Sample Enriched for Alcoholism Risk

“…Third, it should be noted that there is a large amount of variation in BOLD activation even within genotype groups. There are numerous potential sources of variation not accounted for in the current study, including environmental influences such as history of stressful events and past experiences with reward, which can impact functioning of the mesolimbic dopamine system (Pitchers et al, 2010). Furthermore, constraining influences from prefrontal regions likely introduce an additional source of variation in the development and functioning of this system.…”

Concurrent Exposure to Methamphetamine and Sexual Behavior Enhances Subsequent Drug Reward and Causes Compulsive Sexual Behavior in Male Rats

“…In addition, sexual experience caused subsequent sensitization of D-amphetamine reward (Pitchers et al, 2010). In the current study, the effects of Meth and/or sexual experience on Meth CPP was tested under conditions that were not expected to result in drug CPP: low dose of Meth, a single conditioning trial, and testing during the dark phase of the day at times of lowest CPP (Webb et al, 2009a,b).…”

“…Longlasting changes in dendritic spine density and morphology in the accumbens result from repeated drug administration ( and Kolb, 2004) or sexual experience (Meisel and Mullins, 2006;Pitchers et al, 2010), and are hypothesized to mediate druginduced locomotor and reward sensitization (Pierce and Kalivas, 1997;Vanderschuren and Kalivas, 2000;Li et al, 2004). The basolateral amygdala is critical for memory of conditioned stimuli associated with drug stimuli (Grace and Rosenkranz, 2002;Laviolette and Grace, 2006) and involved in reward sensitization and reinforcement (Everitt et al, 1999;Cardinal et al, 2002;See, 2002).…”

Melatonin treatment during the incubation of sensitization attenuates methamphetamine-induced locomotor sensitization and MeCP2 expression

“…Studies indicate that both natural and drug reward-induced locomotor sensitization results in the increase of dendrites and spines in the mesolimbic system (Brown and Kolb, 2001;Kolb et al, 2006;Pitchers et al, 2010;Singer et al, 2009). In addition, new synapse generation contributes to cocaineinduced locomotor sensitization (Brown et al, 2011).…”