Abstract
IN spite of the considerable evidence about the behavioural functions of brain dopamine (DA), and especially the nigrostriatal tract1–9, relatively little is known about the functions of noradrenergic (NA) systems. Although they were initially suggested to be involved in learning10,11 and the coding of reinforcement12, this is now clearly no longer tenable13–17. Perhaps the best documented function of the dorsal noradrenergic bundle18,19 is in extinction situations13. The actual behavioural mechanism involved in these situations, and how it is altered by the lesion, remains complex although some progress has been made in its elucidation20–22. We report here what may prove to be a new class of behavioural deficit produced by selective destruction of NA systems. It was found that the response to novelty was altered in two different test situations after the lesion.
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MASON, S., FIBIGER, H. Altered exploratory behaviour after 6-OHDA lesion to the dorsal noradrenergic bundle. Nature 269, 704–705 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/269704a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/269704a0
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