Title: Does naloxone suppress self-stimulation by decreasing reward or by increasing aversion?
Abstract: Fifty-eight rats were implanted with electrodes in the ventrolateral midbrain central gray from which both self-stimulation reward and/or stimulation-produced analgesia can be obtained. Thirty-nine cases were positive for self-stimulation; of these, 24 also displayed significant stimulation-produced analgesia and 15 did not. Injections of the opiate receptor blocker, naloxone, suppressed self-stimulation by approximately 40% at both analgesic and non-analgesic reward sites. Since naloxone failed to act preferentially at analgesic reward sites, the hypothesis that naloxone suppresses self-stimulation primarily by antagonizing endorphin-mediated analgesia, and thereby increasing the aversive properties of the brain stimulation, was not supported. Rather, the data are consistent with the hypothesis that naloxone suppresses self-stimulation by antagonizing endorphin-mediated reward.
Publication Year: 1984
Publication Date: 1984-07-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref', 'pubmed']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 21
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