Churchill L, Cross R S, Pazdernik T L, Nelson S R, Zahm D S, Heimer L, Kalivas P W
Department of Veterinary and Comparative Anatomy, Pharmacology and Physiology, Washington State University, Pullman 99164-6520.
Brain Res. 1992 May 22;581(1):39-45. doi: 10.1016/0006-8993(92)90341-6.
Bicuculline-induced convulsions increased glucose use throughout the brain and sharply demarcated the ventral pallidum and globus pallidus. Glucose use in the nucleus accumbens also increased after bicuculline-induced convulsions, except for a circumscribed region in the dorsomedial shell. Since the projection from the nucleus accumbens to the ventral pallidum contains gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and the opioid peptide, enkephalin, the pattern of increased glucose use in the ventral pallidum and nucleus accumbens after bicuculline-induced convulsions was compared to the topography of GABAA and mu-opioid receptors. The pattern of glucose use in the nucleus accumbens and ventral pallidum resembled the topography of GABAA, but differed from that of mu-opioid receptors. Bicuculline may disinhibit GABAergic efferents to the ventral pallidum resulting in a dramatic increase in glucose use within striatopallidal synaptic terminals as well as in local terminals of the pallidal projection neurons.
