Abstract

Introduction

Materials & Methods

Results

Discussion & Conclusion

References

Discussion
Board

While the principle components of the brain reward system, the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and the nucleus accumbens (NAS) have received much attention, their afferent and efferent structures are not yet thoroughly investigated. One major input to the VTA and the NAS originates from the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). However, the mPFC is not a homogenous structure but can be divided into different subareas, each of which has distinct afferent and efferent connections. The present experiments examined the effects of discrete quinolinic acid lesions of each of the mPFC subareas, the infralimbic (IL), prelimbic (PL), and the anterior cingulate (AC) mPFC on the conditioned place preference (CPP) induced by amphetamine, cocaine, morphine and CGP37849 (a non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist). It was found that lesions of the IL mPFC blocked the development of morphine- and CGP37849-induced CPP. Lesions of the PL mPFC blocked the development of cocaine- and CGP37849-induced CPP, and lesions of the AC mPFC only blocked CGP37849-induced CPP. Lesions of the whole mPFC comprising all 3 subareas blocked the development of morphine-, cocaine- and CGP37849-induced CPP. None of the lesions affected amphetamine-induced CPP. These results show that the different mPFC subregions have distinct functional roles in the generation of CPP produced by different classes of drugs. This heterogeneity should be taken into account in future studies addressing the role of the mPFC in drug reward and sensitization.

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Poster Number PAtzschentke0577
Keywords: place preference, conditioning, reward, prefrontal cortex, addiction