title: Discharge dependencies of amygdala central nucleus neurons to the cardiac and respiratory cycle following local cocaine administration.
abstract: We examined dependencies of amygdala central nucleus neuronal discharge to the cardiac and respiratory cycles in freely behaving cats following local microinjection of cocaine (100 micrograms/0.2 microliter). Cross-correlation histograms showed cycle-by-cycle dependencies between neuronal discharge and the cardiac and respiratory cycles in 10 of 30 cells and 7 of 30 cells, respectively, during baseline periods. After cocaine delivery, the discharge rate of half of the central nucleus of the amygdala cells (16/30, 53%) were partly or completely inhibited in a reversible manner. Excluding cardiac- and respiratory-dependent neurons which ceased firing after cocaine, more than half (5/8) of the remaining cardiac and two-thirds (4/6) of respiratory-dependent neurons altered discharge dependencies following cocaine administration. Of the cells that did not exhibit cardiac and respiratory dependencies pre-cocaine, 2 of 20 developed cardiac correlations and 3 of 23 developed respiratory correlations following cocaine administration. We speculate that a portion of the cardiac and respiratory responses induced by cocaine may be mediated through the central nucleus of the amygdala.
authors: Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of California, Los Angeles.
authors: H
authors: H
authors: Ni
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Zhang
authors: R K
authors: RK
authors: Harper
authors: R M
authors: RM
authors: Harper
mesh_terms: D000679:Amygdala / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D003042:Cocaine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008564:Membrane Potentials / Q000187:drug effects; D009200:Myocardial Contraction; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D011343:Procaine / Q000494:pharmacology; D012119:Respiration
chemical_list: D011343:Procaine; D003042:Cocaine