Mechanistic Actions of Drugs of Abuse 2010/2011
Type of class Seminar of Medical Neurosciences
Offered by Medical Neurosciences
Instructor Benedikt Salmen
Schedule Thurdays 16.00-18.00 (7 sessions), starting mid-January.
Location tba.
Target audience MSc students Medical Neurosciences
ECTS points 2
Organized by Benedikt Salmen (send email)
Outline
One session will last for approximately 1.5–2hours, the first part being held by me or another lecturer, the second part being held by ~2 students.
In this first part I will first introduce one particular drug or class of drugs (drug of the day), and secondly I will take about one or several
drug related neurobiological topics. The preliminary list of topics would be
- What is addiction
- Animal models for addictive behaviour
- Neuroanatomy of the reward system I: VTA and Dopamine
- Neuroantomy of the reward system II: Opiods and hedonic hotspots
- Synaptic plasticity and addiction
- Biochemical pathways underlying addiction
In the second half of the session students will present publications related to the topics just presented-for example an original research
paper, so you get a feeling how the data shown in textbooks are actually generated. (Suggestions are of course also welcome)
Please let me know till the end of next week who would be interested in this elective, so I know the number of sessions and presentations needed. The course will take place if more than 7 people subscribe to it: http://www.doodle.com/2arvqimvqzrgdbbm