Effect of Gabaergic and Glutamatergic Drugs Injected into the Ventral Pallidum on Locomotor Activity

Abstract

There has been a great deal of recent interest in elucidating the behavioral role of the basal forebrain in cognitive function (Alheid and Heimer, 1988). The ventral pallidum, a part of the basal forebrain, has received a great deal of attention because of the relationship between the degeneration of neurons in this region and the symptoms of cognitive dysfunction associated with Alzheimer’s disease (Whitehouse et al., 1983; Coyle et al., 1983; Ezrin-Waters and Resch, 1986; Smith, 1988). However the ventral pallidum has also been implicated in other functions. Thus, the results of several studies have suggested that the ventral pallidum plays an important role in the regulation of movement or locomotion. This hypothesis is supported by the observations that specific neurotransmitters injected into the ventral pallidum markedly affect normal locomotion (Scheel-Kruger, 1983, 1986; Baud et al., 1988) and the locomotor stimulation produced by drugs that act on neurons in the nucleus accumbens (Mogenson et al., 1980; Heimer et al., 1982; Mogenson and Nielsen, 1983; Swerdlow et al., 1986; Mogenson, 1987; Swerdlow et al., 1986; Austin and Kalivas, 1988). In this chapter we will review these studies and report on our work indicating that quisqualic acid receptors in the ventral pallidum are involved in the regulation of locomotion induced by psychostimulant drugs.