Loss of cocaine locomotor response in Pitx3-deficient mice lacking a nigrostriatal pathway.

ABSTRACT: Both the dorsal and ventral striatum have been demonstrated to have a critical role in reinforcement learning and addiction. Dissecting the specific function of these striatal compartments and their associated nigrostriatal and mesoaccumbens dopamine pathways, however, has proved difficult. Previous studies using lesions to isolate the contribution of nigrostriatal and mesoaccumbens dopamine in mediating the locomotor and reinforcing effects of psychostimulant drugs have yielded inconsistent and inconclusive results. Using a naturally occurring mutant mouse line, aphakia, that lacks a nigrostriatal dopamine pathway but retains an intact mesoaccumbens pathway, we show that the locomotor activating effects of cocaine, including locomotor sensitization, are dependent on an intact nigrostriata

SUBMITTER: Beeler JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2752723 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature