Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences
Intracellular Signaling Contributions To Behaviors Relevant To Nicotine Addiction, Lauren Thompson
Intracellular Signaling Contributions To Behaviors Relevant To Nicotine Addiction, Lauren Thompson
Theses and Dissertations
Nicotine is the primary addictive substance in tobacco, and most smokers who quit will relapse within a year. Evidence shows that cigarette craving increases over time, termed “incubation.” The purpose of these studies was to see if protracted abstinence from chronic nicotine increases rat self-administration, an animal model with good face validity for human tobacco use, and if nicotine self-administration during daily exposure/after 8+ days of abstinence is regulated by extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) shell or anterior cingulate cortex (PFC). ERK kinase inhibitor U0126 was infused in the NAc shell or PFC of Long …