Objective(s):The relationship between tramadol, as an antinociceptive drug, and locus coeruleus (LC), the main noradrenergic nucleus of the brain that affects regulation and modulation of pain through descending noradrenergic pathways was investigated. Materials and Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into four groups of 10 rats. The rats were fixed in stereotaxic instrument and then...

Defining the neural and neurochemical substrates of response inhibition is of crucial importance for the study and treatment of pathologies characterized by impulsivity such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and addiction. The stop-signal task (SST) is one of the most popular paradigms used to study the speed and efficacy of inhibitory processes in humans and other animals. Here we in...

We have developed a dissociated primary cell culture of noradrenergic neurons from the locus ceruleus of postnatal (1- to 5-d-old) mice or rats. Slices of the brain stem were made on a Vibratome. Then the region of locus ceruleus, which was identified by observing the slices under a dissecting microscope, was dissected out from the slices. The removed fragments of brain slices were dissociated ...

A major feature of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the loss of noradrenergic locus coeruleus (LC) projection neurons that mediate attention, memory, and arousal. However, the extent to which the LC projection system degenerates during the initial stages of AD is still under investigation. To address this question, we performed tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunohistochemistry and unbiased stereology o...