Schmidt,T.T.
Rea,E.
Shababi-Klein,J.
Panagis,G.
Winter,C.

The underlying neurobiology of addictive or repetitive behaviours, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), involves dopaminergic dysregulation. While addictive behaviour depends strongly on mesolimbocortical dopaminergic responses, repetitive behaviours have been associated with dopaminergic dysregulation in the basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical circuitry. The present study investigates differences in brain stimulation reward in rats with quinpirole-induced compulsive checking behaviour, in order to examine if deficits in reward processing are also relevant for OCD. Rats were tested in the intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) paradigm, which targets reward-related responses. After phenotype induction, animals were implanted with a monopolar stimulation electrode in the left medial forebrain bundle and trained to press a lever to self-administer electric stimulation of varying frequency. The curve-shift method was used to assess the reward-facilitating effects of d-amphetamine and the reward-attenuating effects of haloperidol (a D(2) antagonist). Thresholds for ICSS were estimated before and after drug/saline injection. The reward-facilitating effects of d-amphetamine were enhanced in quinpirole-treated rats in comparison to controls. This finding suggests that chronic quinpirole-treatment induces changes within the reward circuitry relevant for compulsive behaviour in the rat.

Schmidt, T. T., Rea, E., Shababi-Klein, J., Panagis, G., & Winter, C. (2013). Enhanced reward-facilitating effects of d-amphetamine in rats in the quinpirole model of obsessive-compulsive disorder. International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, 16, 1083-1091. doi:10.1017/S1461145712000983 (Full text)

Publication year	2013
Document type:	Article
Publication status:	Published
External URL:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1461145712000983 View
Categories:
Keywords:	brain stimulation rewardcompulsive disorderd -amphetaminehaloperidolintracranial self-stimulationobsessivequinpirole