Behavioural Brain Research
2016
Martin Prätzlich, Joe Kossowsky, J. Gaab et al.
Meditation improves executive functions such as attention and working memory processes. However, it remains unclear to what extent contextual effects contribute to these improvements, since the role of meditation-associated expectations has not been investigated so far. In a randomized, single-blind, deceptive, between-subject design we compared the impact of short-term meditation (MG) on...
Behavioural Brain Research
2016
Evan J. Kyzar, Adam Michael Stewart, Allan V. Kalueff
Serotonin (5-HT) plays a crucial role in the brain, modulating mood, cognition and reward. The serotonin transporter (SERT) is responsible for the reuptake of 5-HT from the synaptic cleft and regulates serotonin signaling in the brain. In humans, SERT genetic variance is linked to the pathogenesis of various psychiatric disorders, including anxiety, autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and...
Behavioural Brain Research
November 1, 2015
Kevin T. Ball, Hanna Jarsocrak, Johanna Hyacinthe et al.
Although exposure to acute stress has been shown to reinstate extinguished responding for a wide variety of drugs, no studies have investigated stress-induced reinstatement in animals with a history of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA; ecstasy) self-administration. Thus, rats were trained to press a lever for MDMA (0.50 mg/kg/infusion) in daily sessions, and lever pressing was...
Behavioural Brain Research
October 15, 2015
Francesca Filbey, Tim McQueeny, Shrinath Kadamangudi et al.
Combined use of marijuana (MJ) and tobacco is highly prevalent in today's population. Individual use of either substance is linked to structural brain changes and altered cognitive function, especially with consistent reports of hippocampal volume deficits and poorer memory performance. However, the combined effects of MJ and tobacco on hippocampal structure and on learning and memory processes...
Behavioural Brain Research
September 15, 2015
Natashia Swalve, Scott T Barrett, Rick A Bevins et al.
Nicotine is a widely-abused drug, yet its primary reinforcing effect does not seem potent as other stimulants such as cocaine. Recent research on the contributing factors toward chronic use of nicotine-containing products has implicated the role of reinforcement-enhancing effects of nicotine. The present study investigates whether phencyclidine (PCP) may also possess a reinforcement-enhancement...
Behavioural Brain Research
July 15, 2015
R J Keeley, R J McDonald
Previous work has identified the adolescent period as particularly sensitive to the short- and long-term effects of marijuana and its main psychoactive component Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). However, other studies have identified certain backgrounds as more sensitive than others, including the sex of the individual or the strain of the rat used. Further, the effects of THC may be specific to...
Behavioural Brain Research
July 15, 2015
R J Keeley, J Trow, C Bye et al.
Marijuana is one of the most highly used psychoactive substances in the world, and its use typically begins during adolescence, a period of substantial brain development. Females across species appear to be more susceptible to the long-term consequences of marijuana use. Despite the identification of inherent differences between rat strains including measures of anatomy, genetics and behaviour,...
Behavioural Brain Research
May 1, 2015
Renee Kinden, Xia Zhang
Anxiety disorders are one of the most prevalent classes of mental disorders affecting the general population, but current treatment strategies are restricted by their limited efficacy and side effect profiles. Although the cannabinoid system is speculated to be a key player in the modulation of stress responses and emotionality, the vast majority of current research initiatives had not...
Behavioural Brain Research
March 15, 2015
Tobias Buchborn, Helmut Schröder, Daniela C. Dieterich et al.
Serotonergic hallucinogens, such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and dimethoxy-bromoamphetamine (DOB), provoke stereotype-like shaking behaviour in rodents, which is hypothesised to engage frontocortical glutamate receptor activation secondary to serotonin2A (5-HT2A) related glutamate release. Challenging this hypothesis, we here investigate whether tolerance to LSD and DOB correlates with...
Behavioural Brain Research
December 15, 2014
Martesa Tantra, Tim Kröcher, Sergi Papiol et al.
The neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) and its functionally linked polysialyltransferases, ST8SIA2 and ST8SIA4, are crucial for synaptic plasticity. Variations in encoding genes have been associated with mental illness. Since cannabinoids can alter NCAM polysialylation, we hypothesized that delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) might act as environmental 'second hit' regarding cognition of...
Behavioural Brain Research
November 1, 2014
Kevin T. Ball, Mylissa Slane
Pre-clinical studies of individual differences in addiction vulnerability have been increasing over recent years, but the amphetamine derivative 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA; ecstasy) has received relatively little attention in this regard. Previously, we reported large individual differences both in rats' initial behavioral response to experimenter-administered MDMA and their degree...
Behavioural Brain Research
July 15, 2014
A Gallo, C Bouchard, P-P Rompré
Cannabis is the most consumed illicit drug worldwide, but among patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, this consumption is higher suggesting that they are differentially sensitive to cannabis. We chose to study this problematic using a neurodevelopmental model of schizophrenia: neonatal ventral hippocampus lesions (NVHL). In a first study, we compared the locomotor response to novelty, a...
Behavioural Brain Research
July 15, 2014
Adam L. Halberstadt
Serotonergic hallucinogens, such as (+)-lysergic acid diethylamide, psilocybin, and mescaline, are somewhat enigmatic substances. Although these drugs are derived from multiple chemical families, they all produce remarkably similar effects in animals and humans, and they show cross-tolerance. This article reviews the evidence demonstrating the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor is the primary site of...
Behavioural Brain Research
November 20, 2013
Martin A. Santini, D. Balu, M. Puhl et al.
Both the serotonin and glutamate systems have been implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia, as well as in the mechanism of action of antipsychotic drugs. Psychedelic drugs act through the serotonin 2A receptor (5-HT2AR), and elicit a head-twitch response (HTR) in mice, which directly correlates to 5-HT2AR activation and is absent in 5-HT2AR knockout mice. The precise mechanism of...
Behavioural Brain Research
2013
Jonathan Cachat, Evan J. Kyzar, Christopher Collins et al.
112 citations
An indole alkaloid, ibogaine is the principal psychoactive component of the iboga plant, used by indigenous peoples in West Africa for centuries. Modulating multiple neurotransmitter systems, the drug is a potent hallucinogen in humans, although its psychotropic effects remain poorly understood. Expanding the range of model species is an important strategy for translational neuroscience...
Behavioural Brain Research
January 15, 2012
Luigi De Gennaro, Cristina Marzano, Carlo Cipolli et al.
Intrinsic and historical weaknesses delayed the spread of a sound neurobiological investigation on dreaming. Nevertheless, recent independent findings confirm the hypothesis that the neurophysiological mechanisms of encoding and recall of episodic memories are largely comparable across wakefulness and sleep. Brain lesion and neuroimaging studies converge in indicating that...
Behavioural Brain Research
October 10, 2011
A Galanopoulos, Alexia Polissidis, Z Papadopoulou-Daifoti et al.
Endocannabinoids are involved in excitatory neurotransmission initiated by glutamate and aspartate. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of the cannabinoid agonists, Δ(9)-THC and WIN55,212-2, on tissue (prefrontal cortex, dorsal striatum, nucleus accumbens, hippocampus, amygdala and hypothalamus) levels of glutamate and aspartate in two rat phenotypes, high responders...
Behavioural Brain Research
June 20, 2011
Melissa P Lopez-Larson, Piotr Bogorodzki, Jadwiga Rogowska et al.
There are limited data regarding the impact of marijuana (MJ) on cortical development during adolescence. Adolescence is a period of substantial brain maturation and cortical thickness abnormalities may be indicative of disruptions of normal cortical development. This investigation applied cortical-surface based techniques to compare cortical thickness measures in MJ using adolescents compared...
Behavioural Brain Research
June 20, 2011
Fadi Assaf, Miriam Fishbein, Mikhal Gafni et al.
Preconditioning, a phenomenon where a minor noxious stimulus protects from a subsequent more severe insult, and post-conditioning, where the protective intervention is applied following the insult, offer new insight into the neuronal mechanism(s) of neuroprotection and may provide new strategies for the prevention and treatment of brain damage. We have previously reported that a single...
Behavioural Brain Research
June 6, 2011
Involvement of AMPA receptor in both the rapid and sustained antidepressant-like effects of ketamine in animal models of depression.
Behavioural Brain Research
March 21, 2011
Ketamine plus imipramine treatment induces antidepressant-like behavior and increases CREB and BDNF protein levels and PKA and PKC phosphorylation in rat brain.
Behavioural Brain Research
June 1, 2010
Characterization of behavioral and endocrine effects of LSD on zebrafish.
Behavioural Brain Research
March 5, 2010
Rómeó D. Andó, Csaba Ádori, Eszter Kirilly et al.
To assess the functional state of the serotonergic system, the acute behavioural and brain metabolic effect of SSRI antidepressants were studied during the recovery period after MDMA-induced neuronal damage. The effects of the SSRI fluoxetine and the serotonin receptor agonist meta-chloro-phenylpiperazine (m-CPP) were investigated in the social interaction test in Dark Agouti rats, 6 months...
Behavioural Brain Research
January 20, 2010
Haitham Amal, Lilach Fridman-Rozevich, Roey Senn et al.
A single administration of an extremely low dose (0.002 mg/kg) of Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC; the psychoactive ingredient of marijuana) to ICR mice induced long-term cognitive deficits that lasted for at least 5 months. The behavioral deficits were detected by several tests that evaluated different aspects of memory and learning, including spatial navigation and spatial and non-spatial...
Behavioural Brain Research
January 20, 2010
Luigi De Gennaro, Cristina Marzano, Fabio Moroni et al.
The study investigated the effect of one night of sleep deprivation on dream recall at morning awakening after recovery sleep. Forty healthy subjects were studied after adaptation (A) and baseline nights (B), and a recovery (R) night following 40 h of prolonged wakefulness. Parallel to the well-known recovery sleep changes (slow-wave sleep--SWS--rebound, decreased number of awakenings and of...