Elsevier

Brain Research

Volume 744, Issue 2, January 1997, Pages 351-357
Brain Research

Serotonergic modulation of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)-elicited reduction of response rate but not rewarding threshold in accumbal self-stimulation

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0006-8993(96)01210-3Get rights and content

Abstract

In a fixed interval 5-s rate-frequency function paradigm with rats, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA; 0.5, 2 and 4 mg/kg) dose-dependently decreased response rate for nucleus accumbens self-stimulation while both D-amphetamine (0.3 and 1 mg/kg) and cocaine (5 and 15 mg/kg) increased response rates. The highest dose of MDMA caused a cessation of responding in many of the rats tested, but in those rats that continued to respond a significant reduction in frequency threshold for self-stimulation was seen. Cocaine and amphetamine dose-dependently reduced frequency threshold in all rats tested. The non-specific serotonin antagonist, methysergide (5 mg/kg), reversed the inhibitory effects of MDMA on response rates and caused all rats to respond following MDMA (4 mg/kg). Methysergide did not affect MDMA's threshold-lowering properties and when administered alone methysergide had no effect on self-stimulation. These results suggest serotonergic involvement in the performance but not reinforcement-modulating effect of MDMA in the self-stimulation paradigm.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a grant from the Australian Research Council to Dale Atrens, a University of Sydney Research Grant to Iain McGregor and a University of Sydney Postgraduate Research Award to Hui Qiang Lin. The authors thank the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the United States for providing the MDMA used in this study.

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