Dopamine and noradrenaline efflux in the rat prefrontal cortex after classical aversive conditioning to an auditory cue.
We used bilateral microdialysis in the medial prefrontal cortex (PFC) of awake, freely moving rats to study aversive conditioning to an auditory cue in the controlled environment of the Skinner box. The presentation of the explicit conditioned stimuli (CS), previously associated with foot shocks, caused increased dopamine (DA) and noradrenaline (NA) efflux. This conditioned response was dependent on the immediate pairing of the two stimuli; in the pseudoconditioned group that received an equal number of both stimuli, but in an unpaired fashion, no conditioned increases in efflux were observed.
Netherlands Institute for Brain Research, Meibergdreef 33, 1105 AZ Amsterdam ZO, The Netherlands. M.Feenstra@nih.knaw.nl
M G
MG
Feenstra
M
M
Vogel
M H
MH
Botterblom
R N
RN
Joosten
J P
JP
de Bruin
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D004298:Dopamine / Q000378:metabolism*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism*; D009638:Norepinephrine / Q000378:metabolism*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology
D004298:Dopamine; D009638:Norepinephrine