PSY398H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Medial Forebrain Bundle, Therapeutic Index, Substantia Nigra
Document Summary
Pleasure: pleasure is unquestionably a key factor in controlling motivated behaviors, sometimes people subject themselves to deprivation to heighten the pleasure obtained when the deprivation is relieved, since pleasure is subjective, difficult to study experimentally in animals. Mesolimbic dopamine system: study done in 1988 showed that administration of a range of abused drugs (amph, cocaine, nicotine and opiates) results in an increase in da release in the nac, this is also true of natural awards. Effects of dopamine - studies: in humans, drugs that reduce dopamine activity (such as antipsychotics) have been shown to reduce both motivation and cause inability to experience pleasure. Maternal behavior (li et al. : one study by pfaus j, phillips a (1991) found that both anticipatory and consummatory measures of sexual behavior in male rats were disrupted by da receptor antagonists. Drug: 2 common meanings: a medicine used in the treatment of disease, a psychoactive agent often additive , drugs of abuse.
