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The Journal of Neuroscience, July 1, 1998, 18(13):5035-5044

Effects of Pedunculopontine Tegmental Nucleus Lesions on Responding for Intravenous Heroin under Different Schedules of Reinforcement

Mary C. Olmstead¹, Elizabeth M. Munn², Keith B. J. Franklin³, and Roy A. Wise²

¹ Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada, ² Centre for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec H3G 1M8, Canada, and ³ Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montréal, Québec H3A 1B1, Canada

The pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus (PPTg) is believed to play important roles in reward and learning. We examined the effect of PPTg lesions (0.5 µl of 0.1 M NMDA injected bilaterally over 10 min) on the learning of an operant response for opiate reward. In 14 adult male Long-Evans rats, bilateral lesions of the PPTg disrupted the acquisition of responding for intravenous heroin (0.1 mg/kg infused at a rate of 0.25 ml/28 sec) on a fixed ratio-1 (FR-1) schedule of reinforcement. The 12 remaining lesioned animals increased their heroin intake over the acquisition sessions but did not reach the response levels of sham-lesioned animals on the 15th and final session. The sham- and PPTg-lesioned animals that learned the FR-1 task exhibited similar patterns of responding during extinction and reacquisition sessions. When tested on a progressive ratio (PR) schedule of reinforcement, however, PPTg-lesioned animals had lower break points than sham-lesioned animals. Asymmetric lesions, which destroyed the majority of the nucleus in one hemisphere only, did not produce any behavioral deficits. Rats that were lesioned after training also did not show deficits in responding under either FR or PR schedules. These findings suggest that PPTg lesions reduce the rewarding effect of opiates but do not disrupt the ability either to learn an operant response or the response requirements of a PR schedule.

Key words: brainstem; learning; opiates; PPTg; reward; self-administration

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Copyright © 1998 Society for Neuroscience  0270-6474/98/18135035-10$05.00/0

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