Serotonergic dorsal raphe neurons: changes in spontaneous neuronal activity and responsiveness to 5-MeODMT following long-term amphetamine administration.
Neuroscience letters August 14, 1989 B A Heidenreich, G V Rebec 13 citations
In rats pretreated with a high dose of D-amphetamine for six days, serotonergic neurons in the dorsal raphe nucleus showed a trend toward increased spontaneous firing rate and reduced responsiveness to the autoreceptor agonist 5-MeODMT compared to controls. The most notable effect was a strong correlation between spontaneous activity and drug response: faster-firing cells required higher doses of 5-MeODMT to be inhibited. No such correlation appeared in control animals. These results suggest that repeated amphetamine administration alters serotonergic autoreceptor sensitivity in the dorsal raphe.