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Examination Of The Neurochemical Mechanisms That Mediate Nicotine Withdrawal In Adolescent And Adult Rats, Luis Alberto Natividad
Examination Of The Neurochemical Mechanisms That Mediate Nicotine Withdrawal In Adolescent And Adult Rats, Luis Alberto Natividad
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Introduction: The mechanisms that mediate nicotine withdrawal are presently unclear and age group differences in the neurochemical effects of withdrawal have been largely unexplored. Previous studies in our laboratory demonstrated that adult rats display a decrease in extracellular levels of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) during nicotine withdrawal and this decrease is reduced in adolescent rats (Natividad et al., 2010). The goal of this dissertation was to examine whether these age group differences in dopamine during withdrawal are mediated via excitatory and inhibitory mechanisms that modulate dopamine in the cell body region of the ventral tegmental area (VTA). Methods: …