Previous research has suggested that lobeline, a plant alkaloid derived from Lobelia inflate, has potential to be an efficacious pharmacotherapy for the treatment of methamphetamine dependence. In addition to attenuating methamphetamineinduced dopaminergic alterations in vitro, lobeline has been shown to decrease the primary rewarding effects and discriminative stimulus properties of methamphetamine in rats. It is of clinical interest to assess the utility of lobeline to decrease methamphetamine conditioned cues as these cues have been shown to significantly contribute to relapse. The current studies assessed the ability of lobeline to block the acquisition and expression of methamphetamine-induced conditioned place preference in rats. Lobeline blocked the acquisition of methamphetamine-induced conditioned place preference when a low dose of methamphetamine was used during conditioning. However, this blockade was surmounted with higher doses of methamphetamine. Furthermore, the expression of methamphetamine-induced conditioned place preference is attenuated following repeated administration, indicating that lobeline not only blocks the primary reinforcing effects of methamphetamine, but it also blocks the environmental cues that become associated with drug administration. These results provide further evidence that lobeline may be an efficacious treatment for methamphetamine dependence. The rewarding properties of psychostimulants are thought to be mediated, at least in part, by the nucleus accumbens shell. The effects of lobeline on methamphetamine-induced alterations in this dopaminergic region were assessed using microdialysis in rats. Acute lobeline did not have an effect on the methamphetamine-induced increases in dopamine, indicating that repeated lobeline administration may be more efficacious. Interestingly, lobeline potentiated the methamphetamine-induced decrease of the dopamine metabolite, DOPAC. These results suggest that acute lobeline may function to redistribute vesicular dopamine pools within the terminal bouton.

The present thesis examined the behavioural and brain mechanisms of associative change in the rat during Pavlovian fear conditioning as measured by freezing. The first series of experiments (Chapter 3) used compound test designs to study how learning is distributed among excitatory and neutral conditional stimuli (CSs). More was learned about a neutral CSB than an excitatory CSA when trained in isolation, indicating that fear learning is negatively accelerated. CSA blocked fear learning to CSB when trained in compound. Unblocking of CSB occurred if the AB compound signalled an increase in unconditional stimulus (US) intensity or number. Assessments of associative change during blocking showed that more was learned about CSB than CSA. Such assessments during unblocking revealed that more was learned about CSB than CSA following an increase in US intensity but not US number. These US manipulations had no differential effects on single-cue learning. The results show that variations in US intensity or number produce unblocking of fear learning, but for each there is a different profile of associative change and a potentially different mechanism. The second series of experiments (Chapter 4) demonstrated that these stimulus selection effects are mediated, at least in part, by nucleus accumbens shell (AcbSh). AcbSh lesions augmented overshadowing during compound conditioning and promoted learning about CSA at the expense of CSB during blocking designs. Lesioned rats could learn normally about the novel CSB if it was rendered more informative regarding shock in Stage II. These results identify an important role for AcbSh and ventral striatum in distributing attention and learning among competing predictors of danger.

The goal of this dissertation was to investigate the role of μ-opioid receptors in the mechanism of ethanol-stimulated dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens shell (NAcS) of rats. The underlying hypothesis is that blockade of the μ-opioid receptors leads to an attenuation of ethanol-stimulated mesolimbic dopamine release. We prepared ethanol-naïve male Long Evans rats (n = 95) for intravenous (i.v.) drug administration and in vivo microdialysis (in awake, freely moving animals), and analyzed our samples using HPLC and GC for dopamine and ethanol detection, respectively. In one set of experiments, we looked at the effects of naltrexone, a non-selective opioid antagonist, on ethanol-stimulated mesolimbic dopamine release. First of all, we checked to see if naltrexone affected basal dopamine levels in the NAcS. Thereafter, we looked for a dose of naltrexone (i.v.) that was effective in suppressing the release of dopamine in the NAcS evoked by morphine (1 mg/kg, i.v.). Subsequently, we checked to see if doses of naltrexone that inhibited morphine-evoked dopamine were also effective in attenuating dopamine release due to ethanol (1g/kg, 10% w/v, i.v.). To do this, we pretreated rats with naltrexone doses, followed 20 min later by morphine, ethanol or saline (all drugs were administered i.v.). In another set of experiments, we looked at the effect of β-funaltrexamine, a selective μ-opioid antagonist, on ethanol-stimulated dopamine release in the NAcS. Similarly to the previous set of experiments, we looked for a dose of β-funaltrexamine (s.c.) that was effective in suppressing the release of dopamine the NAcS evoked by morphine (1 mg/kg, i.v.), and checked to see if this dose of β-funaltrexamine was also effective in attenuating ethanol-stimulated dopamine release in the NAcS. For the β- funaltrexamine experiments, rats were pretreated with β-funaltrexamine (s.c.) 20- 25 h before i.v. infusions of saline, morphine and ethanol. Morphine increased dopamine release in the NAcS. Naltrexone and β- funaltrexamine significantly attenuated morphine-evoked dopamine release. Also, ethanol increased dopamine release in the NAcS. Naltrexone and β- funaltrexamine, at doses effective in attenuating morphine-evoked dopamine release, suppressed the prolongation, but not the initiation of dopamine release in the NAcS due to ethanol. Naltrexone and β-funaltrexamine did not affect the peak concentration and clearance of ethanol in the brain. The conclusion of this study is that the μ-opioid receptors are involved in a delayed component of ethanol-stimulated dopamine release in the NAcS in ethanol-naïve rats. This is the first study to show that the ethanol-stimulated dopamine response consists of a delayed μ-opioid mechanism. / text