Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 19 June 1970:
Vol. 168. no. 3938, pp. 1487 - 1489
DOI: 10.1126/science.168.3938.1487
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Amphetamine: Differentiation by d and I Isomers of Behavior Involving Brain Norepinephrine or Dopamine

Kenneth M. Taylor 1 and Solomon H. Snyder 1

1 Departments of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205

d-Amphetamine is markedly more potent an inhibitor of catecholamine uptake by norepinephrine neurons in the brain than is 1-amphetamine, whereas the two isomers are equally active in inhibiting catecholamine uptake by the dopamine neurons of the corpus striatum. In behavioral studies, d-amphetamine is ten times as potent as 1-amphetamine in enhancing locomotor activity, while it is only twice as potent in eliciting a compulsive gnawing syndrome. This suggests that the locomotor stimulation induced by amphetamine involves central norepinephrine, while dopamine neurons play an important role in the induced compulsive gnawing behavior. Assessment of differential actions of d- and 1-amphetamine may be an efficient method to differentiate behaviors involving norepinephrine or dopamine in the brain.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Effects of Isometric Exercise on Serum Creatine Phosphokinase Activity.
D. J. Goode and H. Y. Meltzer (1976)
Arch Gen Psychiatry 33, 1207-1211
   Abstract »    PDF »
Methylphenidate, Dextroamphetamine, and Levamfetamine: Effects on Schizophrenic Symptoms.
D. S. Janowsky and J. M. Davis (1976)
Arch Gen Psychiatry 33, 304-308
   Abstract »    PDF »
Behavioral characterization of d- and l-amphetamine: neurochemical implications.
D. Segal (1975)
Science 190, 475-477
   Abstract »    PDF »
Dopaminergic and Noradrenergic Substrates of Positive Reinforcement: Differential Effects of d- and l-Amphetamine.
A. G. Phillips and H. C. Fibiger (1973)
Science 179, 575-577
   Abstract »    PDF »
Levoamphetamine and Dextroamphetamine: Comparative Efficacy in the Hyperkinetic Syndrome: Assessment by Target Symptoms.
L. E. Arnold, P. H. Wender, K. McCloskey, and S. H. Snyder (1972)
Arch Gen Psychiatry 27, 816-822
   Abstract »    PDF »
Catecholamines in the Brain as Mediators of Amphetamine Psychosis.
S. H. Snyder (1972)
Arch Gen Psychiatry 27, 169-179
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)