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SUMMARY:Neural vulnerability mechanisms underlying stimulant addiction - D
 r. Jeff Dalley\, Behavioural and Clinical Neurosciences Institute\, Depart
 ment of Experimental Psychology\, Cambridge
DTSTART:20090929T110000Z
DTEND:20090929T113000Z
UID:TALK18687@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Hannah Critchlow
DESCRIPTION:This talk is part of the Cambridge Clinical Neuroscience and M
 ental Health Symposium\, 29th - 30th September 2009 at West Road Concert H
 all. This event is free to attend for cambridge neuroscientists although r
 egistration is required. To register\, and for further information\, pleas
 e visit: http://www.neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/cnmhs/\n\nAbstract: Despite int
 ensive research its remains unclear why some individuals progressively los
 e control over their drug intake and become insensitive to the mounting ad
 verse consequences that frequently accompany chronic drug abuse. The trans
 ition to compulsive patterns of drug seeking and taking is remarkably poor
 ly understood in neural terms but has been strongly linked to certain pers
 onality styles including novelty and impulsive traits and co-morbid brain 
 disorders such as conduct disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity dis
 order. This talk will focus on a naturally-occurring (‘trait-like’) fo
 rm of impulsivity in rats that models key elements of individual vulnerabi
 lity to stimulant addiction including increased propensity to develop habi
 tual\, compulsive patterns of cocaine self-administration and a strong ten
 dency to re-instate responding for drug after a prolonged period of enforc
 ed withdrawal. The neural and neurochemical substrates of impulsivity in r
 ats will be discussed including evidence for abnormal neurochemical modula
 tion of prefrontal cortex and a corresponding reduction in dopamine D2-lik
 e receptor function in the ventral striatum\, a key neural locus mediating
  the primary reinforcing effects of a wide array of abused drugs including
  the psychostimulant drugs cocaine and amphetamine. Additional empirical e
 vidence will be presented showing (1) the functional involvement of dopami
 ne in regulating impulse control tendencies within two key sub-regions of 
 the ventral striatum\, namely the core and shell of the nucleus accumbens 
 and (2) the nature of interactions between the nucleus accumbens core and 
 shell and inputs to these regions from functionally separable sub-division
 s of the medial and orbital prefrontal cortices. The relevance of these da
 ta for theories of individual vulnerability for addiction will be discusse
 d and integrated with recent emerging research on the underlying genetic i
 nfluences of pre-disposition to stimulant addiction. \n\nBiosketch: Jeff D
 alley is the Canney Lecturer in Psychology and Medicine at Cambridge Unive
 rsity held jointly between the Departments of Experimental Psychology and 
 Psychiatry. He is also a principal investigator and affiliated scientist o
 f the Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute at Cambridge Univers
 ity. His research interests span the areas of behavioural and systems neur
 oscience\, neuropsychopharmacology\, cellular neurophysiology and the appl
 ication of genomic approaches and small animal MR/PET in rodent models of 
 psychiatric disorder. Much of his present research involves understanding 
 the genetic\, neurodevelopmental and neurobiological bases of specific beh
 avioural traits linked to drug abuse and addiction and is funded by the MR
 C\, Wellcome Trust and European Commission. Jeff Dalley trained as a Pharm
 acist at Otago University in New Zealand (1983-1986) before completing a P
 hD as a Commonwealth scholar in Neuropharmacology at University College Lo
 ndon in 1992. He then worked as a post-doctoral research scientist at UCL 
 and Bristol University under the mentorship\, respectively\, of Clare Stan
 ford and Dave Nutt before moving to Cambridge in 1996 as a research associ
 ate in the laboratory of Professors TW Robbins and BJ Everitt in the Depar
 tment of Experimental Psychology.  
LOCATION:West Road Concert Hall
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