Abstract
In Experiment 1, groups of rats were administered 0.1, 1.0, or 3.0 mg/kg d-amphetamine sul- fate, intraperitoneally (i.p.), prior to being placed in an activity box on five occasions, once every third day (conditioning groups); saline injections were given in the home cage on alternate days. Pseudoconditioning groups received saline in the activity box and amphetamine in the home cage. A control group received saline in both environments. Following the amphetamine preexposure phase, all animals were tested in the activity boxes after an i.p. injection of 1.0 mg/kg morphine sulfate. Conditioning groups that had received either 1.0 or 3.0 mg/kg amphetamine in the ac- tivity boxes had higher levels of activity under morphine than did either the pseudoconditioning groups or the control group, demonstrating environment-specific cross-sensitization between the activity effects of amphetamine and morphine. In Experiment 2, three groups of animals were given four preexposures to amphetamine, as in Experiment 1, and then given a series of tests after bilateral injections of 5.0 μg morphine into the ventral tegmental area. Once again, the con- ditioning group was more active than either of the other two groups. These data suggest that changes in the mesolimbic dopamine system underlie the sensitization of activity from repeated amphetamine and morphine injections. The environment-specific cross-sensitization between the effects of amphetamine and morphine seen in this experiment suggests that the development and expression of drug-induced sensitization can come under the control of conditioned stimuli.
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This work was supported by a grant awarded to Jane Stewart from the Medical Research Council of Canada (MA6678). Paul Vezina was supported by a scholarship from Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Quebec.
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Stewart, J., Vezina, P. Environment-specific enhancement of the hyperactivity induced by systemic or intra-VTA morphine injections in rats preexposed to amphetamine. Psychobiology 15, 144–153 (1987). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333103
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333103