THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL STRESS AND PRIOR ETHANOL EXPOSURE ON DOPAMINE IN THE RAT BRAIN

Alcohol use disorder and anxiety disorders occur as comorbidities at a disproportionate rate. Stress and ethanol are two factors that can influence neurobiology and neurotransmitter signaling independently and have interacting effects. Their actions on the mesolimbic and nigrostriatal dopaminergic pathways of the central nervous system have been the focus of research but until recently not often viewed within the same model or experiment. The current thesis uses in vitro fast-scan cyclic voltammetry to examine the effects of social defeat stress and chronic ethanol exposure on ethanol-induced dopamine changes in key structures of these two dopaminergic pathways, the nucleus accumbens core and dorsolateral striatum. Experiments revealed an effect of stress through increasing dopamine release per stimulus pulse in the nucleus accumbens core of ethanol-naïve, and not ethanol-exposed, subjects. Furthermore, ethanol administration decreased terminal dopamine efflux universally in a concentration-dependent manner. Additionally, we found evidence that prior ethanol experience might play a role in dopamine signal recovery. Together, these data suggest that stress influences the effects of ethanol on terminal dopamine signaling and prior ethanol experience plays a role in altering the effects of stress.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Deal, Alex Lynn

• Addiction

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/82243

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/82243