Conditioning of striatal dopamine metabolism with methadone, morphine or bulbocapnine as an unconditioned stimulus.

Abstract

Psychotropic drugs such as methadone, morphine and bulbocapnine produce increments in dopamine metabolism as an unconditioned reflex. When a buzzer noise is used as a conditioned stimulus (CS) with these drugs as unconditioned stimuli, the buzzer CS acquires the properties of the drugs in increasing dopamine metabolism. These results suggest that the brain, like other visceral organs, can be conditioned in terms of neurotransmitter release or metabolism.