The repeated administration of amphetamine in rats produces behavioral sensitization which is characterized either by a progressive enhancement of the locomotor activity induced by the drug or by an enduring behavioral hypersensitivity to the drug after the cessation of the treatment. Some authors have suggested that the action of amphetamine at the level of the nucleus accumbens is responsible for the expression of behavioral sensitization, whereas the action of amphetamine at the level of the dopamine cell bodies in the ventral tegmental area induces some changes responsible for the initiation of the phenomenon. The present study fully tested this hypothesis. In two separate experiments, the effects of different doses of amphetamine repeatedly administered in the ventral tegmental area or in the nucleus accumbens were tested on the later behavioral reactivity to the administration of amphetamine in the nucleus accumbens. Independent groups of rats received five repeated administrations (one injection every other day) of different doses of amphetamine either in the ventral tegmental area (0, 1, 2.5, 5 micrograms/0.5 microliters per side) or in the nucleus accumbens (0, 1, 3, 10 micrograms/l microliters per side). Two days following the last intracerebral amphetamine injection, each group received a phosphate buffer solution challenge directly into the nucleus accumbens followed two days later by an amphetamine challenge (1 microgram/l microliters per side) in the nucleus accumbens and two days later by a peripheral challenge with amphetamine (0.5 mg/kg, s.c.). Locomotor responses were recorded following each injection. Results showed that injections of amphetamine into the nucleus accumbens induced a dose-dependent increase in locomotor activity which remained identical with the repetition of the injections. No difference between the different intra-accumbens pretreated groups was observed following the diverse phosphate-buffered saline solution and amphetamine challenges. In contrast, intra-ventral tegmental area administration of amphetamine did not produce any modification of locomotor activity. However, whereas no difference between the differently pretreated groups was observed following phosphate-buffered saline administration into the nucleus accumbens, a potentiation of the locomotor response to a challenge dose of amphetamine into the nucleus accumbens was observed which was dependent on the dose of amphetamine pretreatment into the ventral tegmental area. Similar potentiation was observed following peripheral challenge with amphetamine. Finally, cross-sensitization was observed when a challenge dose of cocaine (10 micrograms/1 microliter per side) was injected into the nucleus accumbens, as well as when a peripheral challenge dose of morphine (2.5 mg/kg, s.c.) was administered to the ventral tegmental area-pretreated groups.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)