Antagonism by locally applied dopamine into the nucleus accumbens or the corpus striatum of alpha-methyltyrosine-induced disruption of conditioned avoidance behaviour.

Male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained to avoid an electric shock in a two-way shuttle-box. The local application of dopamine into the nucleus accumbens or the corpus striatum was found to antagonize the suppression of conditioned avoidance behaviour induced by systemically administered alpha-methyltyrosine, emphasizing the importance of these dopamine-rich brain structures in mediating conditioned avoidance behaviour.