DISSOCIATION OF LOCOMOTOR AND CONDITIONED PLACE PREFERENCE RESPONSES FOLLOWING MANIPULATION OF GABA-A AND AMPA RECEPTORS IN VENTRAL PALLIDUM

1. This study examined the roles of GABAergic and glutamatergic neurot ransmission in ventral pallidum (VP) in conditioned place preference a nd locomotor activity. 2. Picrotoxin(0.1 mu g), a GABA antagonist, and pha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionate (AMPA; 0.14 mu g), a non-NMDA glutamatergic agonist, were injected bilaterally into VP t hrough implanted cannulae. 3. Both drugs produced a robust increase in locomotion, but neither produced conditioned place preference. 4. The se results suggest a dissociation of locomotor activity and reward at the lever of ventral pallidum. In addition, it was argued that the GAB Aergic projection from nucleus accumbens to ventral pallidum may not b e involved in the processing of reward initiated from dopaminergic act ivation in nucleus accumbens.