what does dopamine ACTUALLY DO? (lets discuss a review article)

[mitogen]

Hey guys,
I'm doing a 4000 word essay for one of my classes on 'the role of dopamine and the nucleus accumbens in drug related behaviour' (or similar i dont have the actual title here)

A quick pubmed search turned up a holy grail - an ENTIRE supplement issue of Neuropharmacology devoted to this particular subject
This is awesome. I'll post the essay when i finish it (in a month or so) but meanwhile, i'm trawling through some of this literature. Molecular bio stuff - not a problem, but some of the psychobabble is starting to get to me...
"incentive salience attribution'??? wtf...
/me goes to the dictionary and looks up salience.

Anyway, the article i'm reading is called "Dopamine and drug addiction: the nucleus accumbens shell connection" in neuropharmacology 47 (2004) supplement 1.
Its actually quite fascinating from the point of view of someone who knows a whole bunch about molecular pharmacology and signalling but less about larger scale neurobiological systems.
So, if anyone reads it how about posting some feedback. I'll make an addendum to this post once i've gotten through the whole thing and have a better understanding of it.

take care

 

[mitogen]

addendum

god damn, I didn't understand even half of that. anyone with a bit of a psych background want to make some comments?

 

[BilZ0r]

It's a fucking complicated field you're wading into. I'd narrow it down if I were you, to something like "dopamine dependent modulation of synaptic plasticity: The key playing in reward related learning and addiction?"

When it comes to your readings, ignore anything by De Souzza, because it is going to be really psychobabley bullshit.

Anyway, if i were you I'd start with this and this.
(It might be helpful to note that the nucleus accumbens is really just a bit of the striatum, and that the substantia nigra might as well just be another bit of the VTA)
I mean, there are several levels you can look at it from... How does dopamine increase synaptic strenght (see AMPA receptor upregulation)
How does dopamine know which syanapses to upregulate (see articles like above)
How does synaptic strenghtening alter behaviours.

 

[BilZ0r]

Meanwhile, this might make a perfect special topic article for the Neuropharmacology textbook.

What bits especially don't you get. That article seemed more or less self explanatory. Though above when I said, ignore stuff by De Souzza, I meant, ignore stuff by Di Chiara, the author of the article in question. I don't know for certain, but I strongly suspect Di Chiara started of life as a psychologist.

That article hardly touches of physiology anyway... its behavioural pharmacology at its worst, Di Chiara is perfectly happy without a physiological substrate, so long as he can make it stick in a cognitive theory.

 

[Kandy K]

I was under the impression that meth actually increases the flow of dopamine to your brain, but some bluelighter told me that the meth particles are actually what is going to your dopamine receptors, thus damaging them, because it is not the dopamine chemical. True or not?

 

[mitogen]

Kandy K:

not true in a classical sense. primarily because methamphetamine agonism at dopamine receptors (*note, lots and lots of different DA receptor subtypes and complexes which all do different things and themselves form a complex) doesn't really matter

-not referenced.

BilZ0r:

yeah, I'm keen. and i have deadlines this time

I have been sitting at home the last three days, occasionally going to lectures, completely immersing myself in the literature and the essay. I think I'm going to stick to some pretty simple behaviouralism which i have an amateur grasp of, and pull out some heavy signalling stuff. and some proteomics. I am going to get given a proteomics essay to write next wednesday. not sure what the topic is but im glad i'm doing it. proteomics is way more revolutionary than genomics.

will keep in touch, and out of the path of Di Chiara (or try to read review articles that manage to reference him with the goal of actually decoding him.)

 

[5-HT2]

hehe, this is right up my alley, as I used to work on behavioral correlates of drug-induced synaptic plasticity in the dopamine system.

That Neuropharmacology supplement seems to cover most of the relevant ground. In addition, I would recommend reading a review or two by Wolfram Schultz. He lays out a good theoretical framework for the role of dopamine as a reward predictor, and backs it up with experimental results from his lab.

mitogen, if you need help or guidance, feel free to hit me up. I'm also willing to proofread your paper if you would like (you just gotta hassle me to make sure I do it).

 

[BilZ0r]

^ Are you even gonna write that entry in the Neuropharmacology textbook?

 

[mitogen]

that would be really cool thanks 5-HT2. I almost definitely will seek your help. I'm giving the essay a break for a few days i'm a little burnt out on it at the moment. So maybe in a little while. Cheers

 

[AznRaver]

you like serotonin or dopamine induced drugs?