Abstract
Adolescence is associated with high impulsivity and risk taking, making adolescent individuals more inclined to use drugs. Early drug use is correlated to increased risk for substance use disorders later in life but the neurobiological basis is unclear. The brain undergoes extensive development during adolescence and disturbances at this time are hypothesized to contribute to increased vulnerability. The transition from controlled to compulsive drug use and addiction involve long-lasting changes in neural networks including a shift from the nucleus accumbens, mediating acute reinforcing effects, to recruitment of the dorsal striatum and habit formation. This study aimed to test the hypothesis of increased dopamine release after a pharmacological challenge in adolescent rats. Potassium-evoked dopamine release and uptake was investigated using chronoamperometric dopamine recordings in combination with a challenge by amphetamine in early and late adolescent rats and in adult rats. In addition, the consequences of voluntary alcohol intake during adolescence on these effects were investigated. The data show a gradual increase of evoked dopamine release with age, supporting previous studies suggesting that the pool of releasable dopamine increases with age. In contrast, a gradual decrease in evoked release with age was seen in response to amphetamine, supporting a proportionally larger storage pool of dopamine in younger animals. Dopamine measures after voluntary alcohol intake resulted in lower release amplitudes in response to potassium-chloride, indicating that alcohol affects the releasable pool of dopamine and this may have implications for vulnerability to addiction and other psychiatric diagnoses involving dopamine in the dorsal striatum.
Highlights
Adolescence is associated with high impulsivity and risk-taking behavior, making adolescent individuals more inclined to use drugs [1]
Alcohol or cannabis are likely tested before psychostimulants or opiates [2,3] and early drug use is correlated to increased substance use disorders (SUD) later in life [4,5,6]
One of the studies showing potassium-induced extracellular levels in the nucleus accumbens to peak around postnatal day (PND) 42 [25] contrasts to data from the dorsal striatum, from Stamford (1989) and the current study, which indicate regional differences
Summary
Adolescence is associated with high impulsivity and risk-taking behavior, making adolescent individuals more inclined to use drugs [1]. Alcohol or cannabis are likely tested before psychostimulants or opiates [2,3] and early drug use is correlated to increased substance use disorders (SUD) later in life [4,5,6]. The neurobiology underlying this increased risk of SUD is unclear, but adolescence is a time of extensive brain development and disturbances of normal brain development by drugs of abuse is hypothesized to contribute to the increased vulnerability after adolescent drug use [7]. The dopaminergic activity in the dorsal striatum could be a factor in the vulnerability of adolescent individuals
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