CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

91) 2007. Gargiulo, P.A.; Llano, L.; Fraile, M.; Olguin, M.; Melonari, P.; Caif, F.; Landa, A. Differential behavioral profile induced by the injection of chlorazepate dipotassium in brain areas that project to the nucleus accumbens septi. Poster T31-3B. 7th Gottingen Meeting of the German Neuroscience Society. 31th Gottingen Neurobiology Conference. March 29-April 1, 2007.- The medial pre-frontal cortex (mPFC), amygdala (Amy) and ventral hippocampus (Hip) project to the Nucleus Accumbens Septi (NAS) through glutamatergic pathways, and these projections have been implicated in goal directed behaviors, emotional driving and contextual cues, respectively, and in the glutamatergic transmission within Acc modulates anxiety. We compared here behavioral changes induced in the plus maze by the injection of chlorazepate dipotassium within origin nucleus of Acc afferences. Rats bilaterally implanted by stereotaxic surgery were divided in three groups (mPFC, Amy, Hip) and injected with saline (1 ìl each side, n=15-18), or chlorazepate dipotassium (1 or 2 ìg in 1 ìl, n=15-18). The mPFC group showed a decrease in time per entry (p<0.05 for both doses) when compared to its control group. The Amy group present an increased in time spent in the open arm (p<0.01, 2 ìg), open arm entries and open/closed arm quotient (p<0.05), 2 ìg), and extreme arrivals (p<0.05 for both doses). The Hip group showed high values in the time spent in the open arm in saline controls, that were decreased by the lower but not the higher dose (p<0.05), like open arm entries (p<0.05). The open/closed arm quotient , starting also with high control values, were decreased by both drug doses (p<0.05). We conclude that GABAergic blockade within these different areas leads to behavioral stereotyped entries to the open arm (mPFC), an anxiolytic-like profile (Amy) and an interference with hippocampal modulation of anxiety and environment recognition (Hip).