title: Microinfusion of cocaine into the medial preoptic area or nucleus accumbens transiently impairs maternal behavior in the rat.
abstract: Cocaine was microinfused bilaterally (50 microg/0.5 microl/side) into the medial preoptic area (MPOA) or nucleus accumbens (NA), 2 regions within the rat brain neural circuit known to mediate maternal behavior (MB). Additionally, 2 sites not involved in this neural circuit, the dorsal striatum and dorsal medial hippocampus, were used as control sites. Microinfusion of cocaine into the MPOA or NA impaired MB, whereas infusion into the control sites did not. MB impairment was not temporally coincident with the increased locomotor activity, also documented after cocaine infusion into the MPOA or NA, arguing strongly that impaired MB is a direct, specific effect of cocaine in these areas, not a derivative of increased motor activity. This is the first demonstration that cocaine action on single central nervous system (CNS) sites can impair MB to the same extent as systemic injections. Thus, cocaine's simultaneous effect on multiple CNS sites is not required for MB impairment.
authors.affiliation: Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark 07102, USA.
authors.forename: E M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Vernotica
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Rosenblatt
authors.forename: J I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Morrell
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D003042:Cocaine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000187:drug effects; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000187:drug effects; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D008845:Microinjections / Q000379:methods; D009714:Nucleus Accumbens / Q000187:drug effects*; D011301:Preoptic Area / Q000187:drug effects*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
chemical_list: D003042:Cocaine