title: Cocaine-associated odor cue re-exposure increases blood oxygenation level dependent signal in memory and reward regions of the maternal rat brain.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cue triggered relapse during the postpartum period can negatively impact maternal care. Given the high reward value of pups in maternal rats, we designed an fMRI experiment to test whether offspring presence reduces the neural response to a cocaine associated olfactory cue.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cocaine conditioned place preference was carried out before pregnancy in the presence of two distinct odors that were paired with cocaine or saline (+Cue and -Cue). The BOLD response to +Cue and -Cue was measured in dams on postpartum days 2-4. Odor cues were delivered to dams in the absence and then the presence of pups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our data indicate that several limbic and cognitive regions of the maternal rat brain show a greater BOLD signal response to a +Cue versus -Cue. These include dorsal striatum, prelimbic cortex, parietal cortex, habenula, bed nucleus of stria terminalis, lateral septum and the mediodorsal and the anterior thalamic nucleus. Of the aforementioned brain regions, only the parietal cortex of cocaine treated dams showed a significant modulatory effect of pup presence. In this area of the cortex, cocaine exposed maternal rats showed a greater BOLD activation in response to the +Cue in the presence than in the absence of pups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Specific regions of the cocaine exposed maternal rat brain are strongly reactive to drug associated cues. The regions implicated in cue reactivity have been previously reported in clinical imaging work, and previous work supports their role in various motivational and cognitive functions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Martha K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Caffrey
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Florida McKnight Brain Institute, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA. Electronic address: febo@ufl.edu.
authors.forename: Marcelo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Febo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D003042:Cocaine / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D009812:Odorants; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D011247:Pregnancy; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D012201:Reward; D012903:Smell / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D003042:Cocaine; D010100:Oxygen
keywords: Cocaine; Cue; Maternal rat; Memory; Pups; fMRI