title: Serotonin and conditioning: focus on Pavlovian psychostimulant drug conditioning.
abstract: Serotonin containing neurons are located in nuclei deep in the brainstem and send axons throughout the central nervous system from the spinal cord to the cerebral cortex. The vast scope of these connections and interactions enable serotonin and serotonin analogs to have profound effects upon sensory/motor processes. In that conditioning represents a neuroplastic process that leads to new sensory/motor connections, it is apparent that the serotonin system has the potential for a critical role in conditioning. In this article we review the basics of conditioning as well as the serotonergic system and point up the number of non-associative ways in which manipulations of serotonin neurotransmission have an impact upon conditioning. We focus upon psychostimulant drug conditioning and review the contribution of drug stimuli in the use of serotonin drugs to investigate drug conditioning and the important impact drug stimuli can have on conditioning by introducing new sensory stimuli that can create or mask a CS. We also review the ways in which experimental manipulations of serotonin can disrupt conditioned behavioral effects but not the associative processes in conditioning. In addition, we propose the use of the recently developed memory re-consolidation model of conditioning as an approach to assess the possible role of serotonin in associative processes without the complexities of performance effects related to serotonin treatment induced alterations in sensory/motor systems.
authors.affiliation: Research Service and Development (151), VA Medical Center, 800 Irving Avenue, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Graduate School, SUNY Upstate Medical University at Syracuse, Syracuse, NY, USA. Electronic address: careybdjp@earthlink.net.
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Carey
authors.affiliation: Research Service and Development (151), VA Medical Center, Room 326, 800 Irving Avenue, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA.
authors.forename: Ernest N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Damianopoulos
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects*; D012701:Serotonin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017366:Serotonin Receptor Agonists / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants; D017366:Serotonin Receptor Agonists; D012701:Serotonin
keywords: Drug stimuli; Pavlovian conditioning; Post-trial drug treatment; Psychostimulant drug conditioning; Sensory/motor function; Serotonin