[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 7-Jun-2005
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Contact: Dawn McCoy
dawn@sfn.org
202-462-6688
Society for Neuroscience

News tips from the Journal of Neuroscience

Endogenous Cannabinoids and Reward in Monkeys
Zuzana Justinova, Marcello Solinas, Gianluigi Tanda, Godfrey H. Redhi, and Steven R. Goldberg

The rewarding effects of exogenous cannabinoids such as 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) have been well studied inside and outside the laboratory. It has been more difficult to establish whether endocannabinoids are actually involved in normal brain reward pathways. In this week's Journal, Justinova et al. tested whether squirrel monkeys would self-administer anandamide. transporters and subsequent intracellular The authors also tested the stable synthetic analog methanandamide. Monkeys rapidly learned to press a lever to selfadminister intravenous anandamide or methanandamide with a pattern similar to cocaine.

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