paperKB
coga / coga-kb
Help
Sign in

Chunk #15 — Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Source
The dopamine hypothesis of drug addiction and its potential therapeutic value.
Embedded
yes

Text

verified morphometrical and electrophysiological properties, predicts a lower action potential generation of Nacc medium spiny neuron (MSN). These results suggest that MSN, of cannabis-dependent rats are likewise hypofunctional. Considering that the main drive of these neurons is cortical glutamate (Glu; see discussion in Spiga et al., 2010, and references therein; Kalivas and Hu, 2006) it raises the possibility of a reduction of Glu as a causal factor. This finding, thus offers the additional possibility that stimulation of these units through TMS may be advantageous in restoring pre-drug physiological activity. Indeed, TMS cortical application should increase the activity of glutamate-containing cortico-fugal fibers monosynaptically impinging upon the spine’s heads of Nacc MSN (Groenewegen et al., 1991). Considering the fundamental role Glu plays in synaptic plasticity (Russo et al., 2010), its role could also be exploited in LTP-like stimulation parameters, ultimately aimed at producing lasting and enduring restoration of original physiological activity. These characteristics must be considered and coherently inserted into a framework to obtain optimal stimulation parameters. In vivo recordings of VTA-projecting DLPfcx neurons do fire spontaneously around 4–6 Hz (Pistis et al., 2001) and a TMS stimulus frequency of 10 Hz could be a reasonable frequency to obtain a significant increase