The cholinergic system plays important roles in both learning and addiction. Medications
that modify cholinergic tone can have pronounced effects on behaviors reinforced by natural …

Acetylcholine, the first neurotransmitter discovered, participates in many CNS functions,
including sensory and motor processing, sleep, nociception, mood, stress response …

Central nervous system cholinergic neurons arise from several discrete sources, project to
multiple brain regions, and exert specific effects on reward, learning, and memory. These …

Environmental reward-predictive cues can motivate reward-seeking behaviors. Although this
influence is normally adaptive, it can become maladaptive in disordered states, such as …

A major goal of basic nicotine research is to obtain information useful to the clinician in
determining why and how people become dependent on this substance via the use of …

The substantial health risk posed by obesity and compulsive drug use has compelled a
serious research effort to identify the neurobiological substrates that underlie the …

Nicotine has a unique profile among drugs of abuse. To the noninitiated user, nicotine has
powerful aversive effects and its relatively weak euphorigenic effects undergo rapid …

The primary reinforcing effects of nicotine are mediated by the drugs action at central
nervous system nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). Although previous studies have …

Rationale The mesolimbic dopamine system has been implicated in the primary reinforcing
properties of drugs of abuse as well as in enhanced responding with conditioned …

Neuropsychiatric disorders are frequently complicated by aggressive behaviors. For some
individuals, existing behavioral and psychopharmacological treatments are ineffective or …