Modulation With Drugs
When drugs are injected into the brain, they provide anatomical and neurochemical specific tools for investigating BSR. They are transported to all areas of the brain via the circulation system, and act on specific receptors that are restricted to particular classes of neurons. BSR and abusive drugs are hypothesized to activate the same brain mechanism and potentiate the rewarding effects of stimulation at the same brain sites. This is consistent with evidence that abusive drugs increase response in BSR by increasing the reward potency of the stimulation at the same brain sites and through the same mechanisms that makes the drugs rewarding. Studies using lesion, pharmacological, and anatomical mapping of the brain have revealed that many drugs of abuse (e.g. amphetamine, cocaine, opioids, nicotine, etc.) activate the reward circuitry of the MFB, which requires a stimulation to activate the mesocorticolimbic dopamine system. Current research focuses on the dopaminergic pathways as the substrate of brain stimulation reinforcement; however, both noradrenergic and dopaminergic pathways are important in brain stimulation reinforcement.
Read more about this topic: Brain Stimulation Reward
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