Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 100, Issue 18, Pages 10523-10528Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1834271100
Keywords
complex environment; behavioral sensitization; dendrites; dendritic spines
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Funding
- NIDA NIH HHS [KO5 DA00473, K05 DA000473, R01 DA013398, R01 DA13398] Funding Source: Medline
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Drugs of abuse and many other kinds of experiences share the ability to alter the morphology of neuronal dendrites and spines, the primary site of excitatory synapses in the brain. We hypothesized, therefore, that exposure to psychostimulant drugs might influence later experience-dependent structural plasticity. We tested this hypothesis by treating rats repeatedly with amphetamine or cocaine and then housing them in either a complex environment or standard laboratory cages for 3-3.5 mo. The brains were processed for Golgi-Cox staining, and the number of dendritic branches and the density of dendritic spines on medium spiny neurons in the nucleus accumbens and pyramidal cells in the parietal cortex were quantified. On most measures, prior treatment with amphetamine or cocaine interfered with the ability of experience in a complex environment to increase dendritic arborization and spine density. We conclude that in some brain regions, repeated exposure to psychomotor-stimulant drugs limits the ability of later experience to produce this form of synaptic plasticity, which may contribute to the persistent behavioral and cognitive deficits associated with drug abuse.
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