Project Title: Amphetamine-Like Stimulants: Norepinephrine and Behavior Principal Investigator: Craig Berridge, PhD Amphetamine-like stimulants are a widely used and abused class of drugs. Clinically, low doses of these drugs are used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). AMPH-like stimulants are one of the most effective treatments for this disorder. Additionally, these drugs are used in the treatment of the sleep-disorder, narcolepsy. Over the past half-century, the behavioral and neurochemical actions of moderate to high-dose amphetamine (AMPH)-like stimulants have been extensively studied. Neurochemically, these drugs increase synaptic concentrations of dopamine (DA) and norepinephrine (NE). Actions of DA within the striatum and nucleus accumbens appear to mediate stimulant-induced reinforcement, hypermotility, and stereotypy. However, the multiple behavioral effects of stimulants are superimposed on an enhanced level of arousal (e.g. prolonged periods of alert waking), which predominates at lower doses of these drugs. Further, clinically these drugs are only effective at low doses. Given the widespread use of low doses of these drugs, it is surprising the little work has been conducted to understand the neural mechanisms underlying the arousal-enhancing actions, as well as other low-dose related actions of these drugs.

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