Pulman, Kim G T, Somerville, Elizabeth M and Clifton, Peter G (2012) Intra-accumbens baclofen, but not muscimol, increases second order instrumental responding for food reward in rats. PLoS ONE, 7 (7). e40057. ISSN 1932-6203

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Abstract

Stimulation of either GABA(A) or GABA(B) receptors within the nucleus accumbens shell strongly enhances food intake in rats. However the effects of subtype-selective stimulation of GABA receptors on instrumental responses for food reward are less well characterized. Here we contrast the effects of the GABA(A) receptor agonist muscimol and GABA(B) receptor agonist baclofen on instrumental responding for food using a second order reinforcement schedule. Bilateral intra-accumbens administration of baclofen (220-440 pmol) stimulated responding but a higher dose (660 pmol) induced stereotyped oral behaviour that interfered with responding. Baclofen (220-660 pmol) also stimulated intake of freely available chow. Muscimol (220-660 pmol) was without effect on responding for food on this schedule but did stimulate intake of freely available chow. Unilateral administration of either baclofen or muscimol (220 pmol) induced similar patterns of c-fos immunoreactivity in several hypothalamic sites but differed in its induction in the central nucleus of the amygdala. We conclude that stimulation of GABA(A) or GABA(B) receptors in the nucleus accumbens shell of rats produces clearly distinguishable effects on operant responding for food.

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	School of Life Sciences > Neuroscience
Subjects:	Q Science
Depositing User:	Deeptima Massey
Date Deposited:	01 Aug 2012 15:59
Last Modified:	02 Nov 2018 09:55
URI:	http://srodev.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/40254

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