Enkephalinergic-dopaminergic "reward" pathways: a critical substrate for the stimulatory, euphoric and memory-enhancing actions of alcohol--a hypothesis.
{"title":"Enkephalinergic-dopaminergic \"reward\" pathways: a critical substrate for the stimulatory, euphoric and memory-enhancing actions of alcohol--a hypothesis.","authors":"R U Esposito, E S Parker, H Weingartner","doi":"","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Recent evidence indicates that alcohol (ethanol) exerts specific effects on dopaminergic-enkephalinergic neuronal pathways which are involved with natural drive-induction and have also been implicated in reward and memory consolidation. It is proposed herein that the euphorigenic and \"paradoxical\" memory-enhancing effects of low doses of alcohol are related to its direct actions on this specific brain substrate.</p>","PeriodicalId":22076,"journal":{"name":"Substance and alcohol actions/misuse","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"1984-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Substance and alcohol actions/misuse","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Recent evidence indicates that alcohol (ethanol) exerts specific effects on dopaminergic-enkephalinergic neuronal pathways which are involved with natural drive-induction and have also been implicated in reward and memory consolidation. It is proposed herein that the euphorigenic and "paradoxical" memory-enhancing effects of low doses of alcohol are related to its direct actions on this specific brain substrate.