PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Laurie H. L. Sellings
AU  - Lindsey E. McQuade
AU  - Paul B. S. Clarke
TI  - Evidence for Multiple Sites within Rat Ventral Striatum Mediating Cocaine-Conditioned Place Preference and Locomotor Activation
AID  - 10.1124/jpet.105.100339
DP  - 2006 Jun 01
TA  - Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
PG  - 1178--1187
VI  - 317
IP  - 3
4099  - http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/317/3/1178.short
4100  - http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/317/3/1178.full
SO  - J Pharmacol Exp Ther2006 Jun 01; 317
AB  - Considerable evidence suggests that psychostimulants can exert rewarding and locomotor-stimulating effects via increased dopamine transmission in the ventral striatum. However, the relative contributions of ventral striatal subregions to each of these effects have been little investigated. In the present study, we examined the contribution of different ventral striatal sites to the rewarding and locomotor-activating effects of cocaine. Initially, the effects of bilateral 6-hydroxydopamine lesions of the nucleus accumbens core or medial shell on cocaine-induced locomotor stimulation (0.5–1.5 mg/kg i.v. or 5–20 mg/kg i.p.) and conditioned place preference (0.5 mg/kg i.v. or 10 mg/kg i.p.) were examined. In a subsequent study, we investigated the effects of olfactory tubercle versus medial shell lesions on cocaine-conditioned place preference and locomotor activity (0.5 mg/kg i.v.). Dopaminergic lesion extent was quantified by radioligand binding to the dopamine transporter. Multiple linear regression was used to identify associations between behavioral effects and residual dopamine innervation in ventral striatal subregions. On this basis, the accumbens core was associated with the locomotor stimulant effects of i.v. and i.p. cocaine. In contrast, the medial shell was associated with the rewarding effect of i.v. cocaine, but not of i.p. cocaine. Finally, the olfactory tubercle was identified as an additional site contributing to conditioned place preference produced by i.v. cocaine. Overall, these findings provide additional evidence that the locomotor stimulant and rewarding effects of systemically administered psychomotor stimulant drugs are segregated within the ventral striatum. The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics