Influence of shock-induced fighting and social factors on dopamine turnover in cortical and limbic areas in the rat.

The present experiments investigated changes in dopaminergic mesocorticolimbic neurones originating from the A10 cell group, in animals exposed to electric shocks in pairs or individually, in comparison to animals receiving no shock and tested in pairs or alone. The social setting under which shock occurred had no influence on the increases in DOPAC levels observed in animals exposed acutely or chronically to electric shocks. In contrast, subordinate rats in the paired shock condition had lower tyrosine hydroxylase activity in the accumbens than dominant rats. Pairing of animals in the test cage without shock induced an increase in accumbens DOPAC levels.