The influence of injections of 6-hydroxydopamine into the nucleus accumbens and the substantia nigra on the behavior of rats.

Bilateral injections of 6-hydroxydopamine into the nucleus accumbens of rats with destroyed dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra leads to an increase in the horizontal motoric activity in the open field and accelerates the appearance of conditioned reflex responses in the course of the postoperative restoration of the skill as compared with these indices in rats in which the neurotoxin was injected only into the substantia nigra. Thus, destructions of the dopaminergic system of the nucleus accumbens can compensate to a certain degree for the consequences of nigrostriatal pathology.