In contrast, CTAP injected into the nucleus accumbens shell but not the core attenuated the expression of cocaine place preference. Intra-nucleus accumbens core, caudate putamen or caudal VTA CTAP significantly attenuated cocaine-induced hyperactivity. In addition, the number of cFos positive cells was increased in the motor cortex,

medial and ventromedial aspects of the nucleus accumbens shell, basolateral amygdala and caudal VTA during the expression of cocaine place preference, and this increase was attenuated in the animals that received intra-accumbens core CTAP during daily cocaine conditioning. These results demonstrate the importance of mu opioid receptors in the nucleus accumbens and VTA in cocaine-induced reward

and hyperactivity this website and suggest that some aspects of the behavioral effects of cocaine are mediated by endogenous activation of mu opioid receptors in these brain regions. (C) 2008 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“We propose a new statistical framework for the exploratory analysis of the ecological niche, the “”General niche-environment system factor analysis”" (GNESFA). The data required for this analysis are (i) a table giving the values of the environmental variables in each environment unit (EU, e.g., the patches of habitat on a vector map), (ii) a set of weights measuring the availability of the EUs GW786034 datasheet to the species (e.g., the proportion of the study area covered by a given patch), and (iii) a set of utilization weights describing the use of the EUs by the focal species (e.g., the proportion of detections of find more the species in each patch). Each row of the table corresponds to a point in the multidimensional space defined by the environmental variables, and each point is associated with two weights. The GNESFA searches the directions in this space where the two weight distributions differ the most, choosing one distribution as the reference, and the other one as the focus. The choice of the utilization as the reference corresponds to the MADIFA (Mahalanobis distances factor

analysis), which identifies the directions on which the available EUs are in average the furthest from the optimum of the niche, allowing habitat suitability modelling. The choice of the availability as the reference corresponds to the FANTER (Factor analysis of the niche, taking the environment as the reference), which identifies the directions on which the niche is the furthest from the average environment (marginality) and those on which the niche is the narrowest compared with the environment (specialization). The commonly used ENFA (Ecological niche factor analysis) is at the middle point between the MADIFA and the FANTER, considering both distributions as the reference and the focus simultaneously.