Intra-NAC NMDA evoked prefrontal ACh release in rats receiving TTX, on PD7, into the dorsal hippocampus (DH), basolateral amygdala, or NAC. Thus, impulse flow specifically within the VH, during a sensitive period of development, is necessary for the functional organization

of a mesolimbic-cortical circuit known to mediate attentional control processes. Therefore, neonatal inactivation of VH represents an effective animal model for studying the basis of certain cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia. Neuropsychopharmacology (2011) 36, 2477-2487; doi:10.1038/npp.2011.136; selleck screening library published online 3 August 2011″
“Oxytocin is known to have anti-anxiety and anti-stress effects. Using a fear-potentiated startle paradigm in rats, we previously demonstrated that subcutaneously administered oxytocin suppressed acoustic startle following fear conditioning compared with startle before fear conditioning (termed background anxiety),

but did not have an effect on cue-specific fear-potentiated startle. The findings suggest oxytocin reduces background anxiety, an anxious state not directly related to cue-specific fear, but sustained beyond the immediate threat. The goal of the present study was to compare the effects of centrally and peripherally administered oxytocin on background anxiety and cue-specific fear. Male rats were given oxytocin either subcutaneously (SC) or intracerebroventricularly (ICV) into the lateral ventricles before fear-potentiated startle testing. PF299804 Oxytocin doses of 0.01 and 0.1 mu g/kg SC reduced background anxiety. ICV administration of oxytocin at doses from 0,002 to 20 mu g oxytocin had no effect on background anxiety or cue-specific fear-potentiated startle. The 20 mu g ICV dose of oxytocin did reduce acoustic startle in non-fear conditioned rats. These studies buy I-BET151 indicate that oxytocin is potent and effective in reducing background anxiety when delivered peripherally, but not when delivered into the cerebroventricular system. Oxytocin given systemically may have anti-anxiety properties that are

particularly germane to the hypervigilance and exaggerated startle typically seen in many anxiety and mental health disorder patients. Neuropsychopharmacology (2011) 36, 2488-2497; doi:10.1038/npp.2011.138; published online 27 July 2011″
“Rapid tolerance develops to many of nicotine’s behavioral and autonomic effects, A better understanding of the spatiotemporal patterns in neuronal activity as a consequence of acute nicotine tolerance (tachyphylaxis) may help explain its commonly found inverted ‘U’-shaped biphasic dose-effect relationship on various behaviors. To this end, we employed high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging and relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) as a marker of neuronal activity, to characterize the regional development of acute tolerance as a function of nicotine dose in naive, anesthetized rats. A single intravenous nicotine injection at 0.1 and 0.3, but not 0.