ABSTRACT
Psychomotor stimulants are commonly divided into two basic classes, amphetamine-like and nonamphetamine-like, based upon their effects on catecholamine-containing neurons. This chapter describes the application of the C-deoxyglucose (2-DG) method to the identification of the neural substrates of the actions of psychostimulants. The neural circuits activated by low dose intravenous administration of psychostimulants are also analogous. In each case, low doses, those which produce some stimulation of locomotor and exploratory behavior, increase metabolic activity in the nucleus accumbens and other portions of the mesocorticolimbic system. A more comprehensive 2-DG study of methylphenidate examined the effects of a range of doses on cerebral metabolism in the limbic as well as in the motor system. At lower doses, glucose utilization alterations were confined to the limbic system, particularly to the nucleus accumbens and the olfactory tubercle. The chapter discusses this dose-dependent distribution of metabolic activation following intravenous methylphenidate administration that is identical to those observed following administration of many of the other psychostimulants.
