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Full-Text Articles in Biological Psychology

Delayed Modulation Of Glutamate Receptors By Anti-Epileptic Drugs After Traumatic Brain Injury In Rats, Edgar Rodriguez Jun 2021

Delayed Modulation Of Glutamate Receptors By Anti-Epileptic Drugs After Traumatic Brain Injury In Rats, Edgar Rodriguez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a significant health concern. Around 74 million people sustain a traumatic brain injury worldwide. The damage caused by TBI produces two types of injury; primary and secondary injuries. Primary injury is caused within milliseconds and is irreversible. Secondary brain injury is delayed and produced by molecular, cellular, and structural disruption after the initial injury. One of the most devastating dysfunction after TBI is glutamate neurotransmitter overactivation that could lead to neurotoxic levels of glutamate in the brain (i.e., excitotoxicity). Excitotoxicity has been linked with the development of epilepsy after TBI, also known as post-traumatic epilepsy …


The Role Of Glutamate Neurotransmission In The Ventral Tegmental Area In The Expression Of Conditioned Approach Learning, Priscila Hachimine-Merli Sep 2017

The Role Of Glutamate Neurotransmission In The Ventral Tegmental Area In The Expression Of Conditioned Approach Learning, Priscila Hachimine-Merli

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Conditioned stimuli (CSs) come to function as CSs by acquiring the capacity to activate the same mesocorticolimbic dopamine (DA) neurons activated by primary rewards, producing conditioned activation of these neurons and their associated motivational states. This model stipulates that CSs activate mesocorticolimbic DA systems through the activation of glutamate receptors on DA neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA). We tested the hypothesis that glutamate receptor stimulation in the VTA is necessary for the expression of conditioned approach. Rats were tested in a conditioned approach protocol that consisted of 7 consecutive conditioning sessions (light presentations and food were paired), one …


The Nucleus Accumbens Core Dopamine D1 And Glutamate Ampa/Nmda Receptors Play A Transient Role In The Performance Of Pavlovian Approach Behavior, Veronica Dobrovitsky Sep 2017

The Nucleus Accumbens Core Dopamine D1 And Glutamate Ampa/Nmda Receptors Play A Transient Role In The Performance Of Pavlovian Approach Behavior, Veronica Dobrovitsky

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The role of the nucleus accumbens core (NAc core) continues to be redefined with newly acquired data on neurochemical mechanisms mediating the learning and performance of behavior. Previous empirical data showed that dopamine transmission at the D1 receptor (D1R) plays a transient role in the expression of learned Pavlovian approach behavior. Here we show that, prior to overtraining, dopamine activity at D1Rs specifically within the NAc core is critical for the performance of approach behavior elicited by the recently-acquired reward-paired cue. Blockade of D1Rs in the NAc core, but not the dorsomedial striatum or NAc shell, disrupted approach responses during …