Figure 7.

Mean (±SEM) acetylcholine (ACh) efflux in the medial pre-frontal cortex (mPFC) of postnatal day (PD)7 nNACTTX rats (n=5) and sham controls (n=6) receiving, in pseudo-randomized order, perfusions of vehicle (artificial cerebral spinal fluid (aCSF)) or N-methyl--aspartate (NMDA) (250 μM) into the nucleus accumbens (NAC) shell during separate dialysis sessions as adults. The period for baseline infusions of aCSF and administration of NMDA was the same as those reported in previous experiments (Figures 2 and 3). In contrast to the findings in Figure 2, perfusion of NMDA resulted in an increase in cortical ACh efflux, above that observed during aCSF perfusion, in both sham and nNACTTX animals (collection nos. 5–8). However, the responsivity of nNACTTX rats to NMDA was attenuated and only sham-lesioned rats exhibited a drug-induced stimulation of ACh that was similar to those previously reported.