Summary
It has been suggested that the rewarding properties of nicotine which reinforce its self-administration are related to its ability to stimulate mesoaccumbens dopamine (DA) neurones. This study has shown that the constant infusion of nicotine, at doses which result in plasma levels similar to those found in the plasma of habitual smokers, attenuate or abolish the effects of nicotine injections on (DA) overflow in the nucleus accumbens. The data imply that nicotine administration does not invariably result in increased DA release in the nucleus accumbens and that hypotheses for nicotine addiction which assume that this is the case should be treated with caution.
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© 1995 Birkhäuser Verlag Basel
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Balfour, D.J.K., Benwell, M.E.M. (1995). Desensitisation of the Stimulatory Effects of Nicotine on Dopamine Secretion in the Mesolimbic System of the Rat. In: Clarke, P.B.S., Quik, M., Adlkofer, F., Thurau, K. (eds) Effects of Nicotine on Biological Systems II. Advances in Pharmacological Sciences. Birkhäuser Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-7445-8_27
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-7445-8_27
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