creators_name: Oades, R.D.
creators_name: Taghzouti, K.
creators_name: Rivet, J-M.
creators_name: Simon, H.
creators_name: Le Moal, M.
type: journalp
datestamp: 2001-03-16
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:54:36
metadata_visibility: show
title: Locomotor activity in relation to dopamine and noradrenaline in the nucleus accumbens, septal and frontalk areas: a 6-hydroxydopamine study
ispublished: pub
subjects: behav-neuro-sci
subjects: bio-behav
subjects: neuro-pharm
subjects: psy-bio
full_text_status: public
keywords: locomotion, noradrenaline, NA, dopamine, DA, DOPAC, accumbens, septum, frontal cortex, mesolimbic, mesocortical ventral tegmental area, VTA, circadian rhythm, novelty, apomorphine, habituation, rat
abstract: The Study and the Method: 
The locomotor activity of adult male Sprague-Dawley was automatically recorded in a circular corridor - circadian changes are described as well as the response to the novel situation and its habituation over three hours.
Four groups of animals were compared, - those with sham/vehicle operations and those with 6-OHDA dopamine (DA) depleting lesions in - 
the frontal cortex,
the limbic septum, and
the ventral tegmental area (VTA - A10). 

Results: 
1/ Lesions of the VTA resulted in increased dark-phase activity, - and a large response to an apomorphine challenge in comparison to other lesion and control groups:
2/ Septal 6-OHDA lesions did not alter locomotion:
3/ After frontal DA depletion there was a small increase of locomotion after the apomorphine challenge, that might reflect increased receptor sensitivity in cortical or sub-cortical areas:
(Table 1: HPLC measures of NA, DA and DOPAC for each group in the prefrontal cortex, septum and N. accumbens) 

Figure 1 illustrates the cumulative photocell counts per hour over 24 hours for the 4 groups:.
Figure 2 illustrates the cumulative photocell counts every 10 minutes over 90 minutes post-apomorphine treatment - maximal at 20-30 minutes and habituating over 60 minutes (90 minutes for the VTA group): overall activity VTA >> Frontal > Septal > Controls.

Conclusions:
Along with correlations found for motor activity with cortical levels of DA and NA, these results are interpreted to support a role for DA, NA and the region of the frontal cortex in modulating locomotion that is primarily mediated by mesolimbic VTA - accumbens - DA activity.

date: 1986
date_type: published
publication: Neuropsychobiology
volume: 16
publisher: S.Karger
pagerange: 37-42
refereed: TRUE
citation:   Oades, R.D. and Taghzouti, K. and Rivet, J-M. and Simon, H. and Le Moal, M.  (1986) Locomotor activity in relation to dopamine and noradrenaline in the nucleus accumbens, septal and frontalk areas: a 6-hydroxydopamine study.  [Journal (Paginated)]     
document_url: http://cogprints.org/1372/2/rat-npb-86.pdf