Question

Suppose that during an electrophysiology experiment you discover that the dopamine axons that project to the nucleus accumbens AND striatum are expressing a mutated form of a voltage gated potassium channel that is much slower to close than normal. What effect on addiction related motivated behaviours would this mutation have? Explain your answer clearly.

Answer 1

Nucleus accumbens is a part of the basal ganglia. This is the part of the brain which is believed to store the information of the stimuli which gave pleasure or gave a bad experience. So when a cigarette smoker smells the cigarette smoke the cells in this area will cause him crave for cigrette. This signalling is achieved by the dopaminergic neurons.

In this experiment the dopaminergic neuron signalling is slow beacuse of the slow potassium gated channels. Hence the signal to the nucleus accumbens will be slow it means less dopamine. As their will be less dopamine hence their will be lesser craving for addiction. So in these circumstances the motivational behaviour will be effective.