Effects of 6-OHDA lesions of the central medial nucleus accumbens on rat intravenous morphine self-administration.

The function of dopaminergic innervations of the central medial nucleus accumbens in the processes maintaining intravenous morphine self-administration was assessed by lesioning with 6-OHDA and comparing drug intake with sham-vehicle treated littermates. Localized bilateral lesions of this structure resulted in significant increases in morphine intake shifting the dose-effect relationship to the right with twice the dose necessary to maintain prelesion rates of self-administration. Content of dopamine and dihydroxyphenylacetic acid was decreased in the nucleus accumbens after the lesion, but unchanged in the adjacent pyriform cortex and anterior caudate nucleus-putamen, while serotonin was significantly decreased in the pyriform cortex. High affinity uptake measurements also suggested nucleus accumbens dopaminergic and pyriform cortex serotonergic innervations to be affected by the lesion. The shift to the right in the dose effect relationship after the lesion suggests these neuronal systems to be excitatory to the processes mediating self-administration.