Involvement of nucleus accumbens dopaminergic transmission in acoustic startle: observations concerning prepulse inhibition in rats with entorhinal cortex lesions.
The relationship between the entorhinal cortex and prepulse inhibition (PPI) as well as the nucleus accumbens dopaminergic participation in acoustic startle were examined in rats. After the entorhinal cortex was damaged bilaterally using ibotenic acid, a microdialysis probe was placed in the nucleus accumbens for detection of dopamine before, during and after acoustic startle stimuli. In rats with bilateral entorhinal cortex lesions PPI was reduced, and extracellular dopamine in the nucleus accumbens was elevated with or without acoustic stimuli. The entorhinal cortex and the sensorimotor gating system thus may be related via dopaminergic connections in the nucleus accumbens, even though dopamine release did not coincide completely with acoustic startle stimuli.
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Hyogo College of Medicine, Hyogo, Japan. seishin@hyo-med.ac.jp
Kyoko
K
Goto
Akinori
A
Ueki
Hiroyuki
H
Iso
Yoshio
Y
Morita
D000818:Animals; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004298:Dopamine / Q000502:physiology*; D018728:Entorhinal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D017551:Microdialysis; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D009433:Neural Inhibition / Q000502:physiology; D009714:Nucleus Accumbens / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013216:Reflex, Startle / Q000502:physiology*; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000502:physiology*
D004298:Dopamine