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Responding for brain stimulation: stress and desmethylimipramine.
Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry
|January 1, 1984
Summary
Uncontrollable stress impairs brain reward functions, potentially modeling depression. Chronic stress or desmethylimipramine treatment can prevent these behavioral disturbances by inducing adaptive changes.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Behavioral Science
- Psychiatry
Background:
- Stressors significantly impact biogenic amine activity and can lead to behavioral disturbances, serving as models for human depression.
- Understanding how stress affects reward processes is crucial for developing effective treatments for mood disorders.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effects of acute and chronic stressors on reward-seeking behavior.
- To determine how desmethylimipramine modifies performance under stress conditions.
Main Methods:
- Assessing responding for electrical brain stimulation after acute or chronic shock exposure.
- Evaluating the impact of desmethylimipramine on performance modification.
Main Results:
- Inescapable shock reduced responding in the nucleus accumbens and medial forebrain bundle, but not the substantia nigra.
- Escapable shock did not significantly affect performance.
- These deficits were counteracted by repeated stressor application or desmethylimipramine treatment.
Conclusions:
- Uncontrollable stressors can disrupt motivational processes in specific brain regions, influencing affective state.
- Chronic stress or desmethylimipramine may induce adaptive neurochemical changes, offering protection against stress-induced behavioral disturbances.