Please join the Department of Psychology on Wednesday, April 18th at 4:00 pm in Science Center 300. Dr. Mary E. Cain from the Kansas State University Department of Psychology will present:

"Enrichment and drug use: A potential neurobiological mechanism"

 Abstract: Differential rearing during childhood and adolescence results in behavioral and neurobiological differences in adulthood. In rodent models, environmental enrichment decreases drug abuse vulnerability in early adulthood. While this behavioral effect is well established, the neurobiological mechanism is not clear. This talk will discuss experiments examining a potential role of the glutamatergic system in contributing to the ability of enrichment to decrease drug use vulnerability. The results suggest that metabotropic glutamate receptors contribute to the locomotor differences between enriched and isolated rats following a single or repeated amphetamine exposure.