2009 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Dopaminergic mechanisms and operant behavior in rats

Research Project

Project/Area Number	19530646
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Experimental psychology
Research Institution	Fukushima University
Principal Investigator	TSUTSUI Yuji Fukushima University, 共生システム理工学類, 准教授 (70286243)
Project Period (FY)	2007 – 2009
Keywords	オペラント行動 / ドパミン作動性神経 / 側坐核 / 線条体 / レバー押し / ラット / マウス
Research Abstract	In this research, we investigated the relationship between operant behavior in animals and the dopaminergic (DA) neurotransmission in the central nervous system. Inhibition of the DA transmission at the nucleus accumbens delayed the response initiation and made it difficult to acquire new learning tasks. On the other hand, impairment of the DA transmission in the striatum decreased the response speed when the impairment was provided to the D1 receptors, and decreased the accuracy of responses when the impairment was provided to the D2 receptors. These results suggested that the DA system in the nucleus accumbens and the striatum have an important role for the initiation and the control for operant behavior in animals.