Background: Attentiveness is a fundamental function of the brain. Deficits in attentional performance is a major cause for individual and societal burden. An important region involved in attention is striatum, inside of which there is dopamine: a key neurotransmitter in the regulation of attention. The dopamine transporter (DAT) is abundant in dorsal striatum (DS) and ventral striatum (VS) and DAT acts as a modulator of dopamine signaling. Abnormal DAT expression is identified as one of the causes of attentional dysfunction in several neuropsychiatric diseases. This project aimed to parse the relationship between DAT expression and attentional performance in a sustained visual attention task, as well as DAT’s relationship to amphetamine (AMPH) sensitivity. Methods: To test for attention 15 male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained and tested in a signal detection task (SDT) to gather attentional data and to measure change in performance after AMPH administration. To quantify DAT in striatum, this project used immunohistochemistry to measure fluorescent intensity, a measurement representing the corresponding DAT expression level. To support findings, the project used drift diffusion models (DDMs) to enhance our understanding of the decision-making process affected by DAT expression. Results: The results showed non-significant correlations between DAT density in DS and VS and premature responses and accuracy in the SDT. The data also showed that the DAT DS:VS expression ratio significantly correlates to AMPH sensitivity. Conclusion: We concluded that increased DAT expression in striatum can predict worse accuracy and increased premature response times during a SDT. The project also found that the ratio of DAT expression in dorsal and ventral striatum can predict changes in accuracy after AMPH administration.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-534028 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Edelsvärd, Josef |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för farmaceutisk biovetenskap |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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