Summary: According to a new study to be published in eNeuro, amphetamine use may disrupt the development of the orbital prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain associated with decision making.
Source: SfN.
Recreational drug use during adolescence may disrupt development of an understudied part of the prefrontal cortex, according to a study of male mice published in eNeuro.
Brain cells that utilize the neurotransmitter dopamine are key players in the development of the prefrontal cortex, which continues to mature through early adulthood. During adolescence, the axons of these dopamine neurons extend from the nucleus accumbens to the medial prefrontal frontal cortex.
Cecilia Flores and colleagues show that this delayed growth of dopamine axons also applies to the orbital prefrontal cortex (oPFC), a brain region involved in complex functions such as decision-making, but the development of which is poorly understood.
Mice exposed to the stimulant amphetamine at doses similar to those obtained when the drug is abused by humans had fewer synapses in the oPFC, likely as a result of reduced axon growth, compared to control mice. The researchers did not observe ongoing adolescent dopamine axon growth nor similar effects of amphetamine in a neighboring brain region, the piriform cortex.
This suggests that the ongoing extension of dopamine axons and their sensitivity to environmental influences like drugs may be unique to the prefrontal cortex.
Source: David Barnstone – SfN
Publisher: Organized by NeuroscienceNews.com.
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is credited to Hoops et al., eNeuro (2018).
Original Research: The study will appear in eNeuro.
Funding: Funding provided by NIH/National Institute on Drug Abuse, Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Quebec Nature and Technology Research Fund, Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Santé.
[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]SfN “Amphetamine Abuse Disrupts Development of the Prefrontal Cortex: Mouse Study.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 8 January 2018.
<https://neurosciencenews.com/pfc-amphetamine-8285/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]SfN (2018, January 8). Amphetamine Abuse Disrupts Development of the Prefrontal Cortex: Mouse Study. NeuroscienceNews. Retrieved January 8, 2018 from https://neurosciencenews.com/pfc-amphetamine-8285/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]SfN “Amphetamine Abuse Disrupts Development of the Prefrontal Cortex: Mouse Study.” https://neurosciencenews.com/pfc-amphetamine-8285/ (accessed January 8, 2018).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]
