Patients in whom a PVD had to be induced were on average younger

Patients in whom a PVD had to be induced were on average younger than patients with a preexisting PVD (55.2 and 59.9 years, respectively; P = .021, Mann–Whitney U test). We treated

86 eyes for primary floaters and 30 eyes that had floaters secondary to other buy AZD8055 ocular disease (10 RRD, 3 Fuchs uveitis, 3 anterior uveitis, 1 intermediate uveitis, 6 posterior uveitis, 2 retinitis pigmentosa, 5 other). There was no difference in age between these groups (mean age, 59.6 and 56.1 years, respectively; P = .233, Mann–Whitney U test). The cases secondary to RRD all had been treated with external buckle surgery. All uveitis-related cases were quiet without medication and had no uveitis activity for at least 1 year preceding the surgery. In the primary floaters, we had to induce a PVD in 26 (30.2%) of 86 cases, and in the secondary floaters, this was necessary in 4 (13.3%)

of 30 cases. This difference did Torin 1 in vivo not quite reach significance (P = .069, chi-square test). From the total of 116 cases, we detected 1 or more iatrogenic retinal break in 19 cases (16.4%). All breaks were treated with external cryopexy and air or gas tamponade. In the remaining 97 cases without breaks, other precursors were found. In 11 cases, only retinal traction tufts were found and treated with cryocoagulation. In 3 cases, we encountered retinal breaks with signs of chronicity (surrounding subretinal pigmentation or sclerosed flaps). We considered these breaks to be preexisting many and treated these with cryocoagulation and internal tamponade. In 2 cases, a retinal break was found at the preoperative examination and was treated with laser coagulation before surgery. In total, we used gas tamponade (SF6 20%) in 4 cases (3.4%) and air tamponade

in 43 cases (37.1%). In 19 of these cases, gas tamponade (4 SF6 and 15 air) was used for prevention of retinal detachment in eyes with iatrogenic breaks. In the remaining 24 cases of air tamponade, this tamponade was used to prevent hypotony in 25-gauge vitrectomy. In the 29 cases that underwent 20-gauge vitrectomy, we found iatrogenic retinal breaks in 20.1%, whereas breaks were found in 25-gauge cases in 14.9%. This difference was not statistically significant (P = .469, chi-square test). Breaks tended to occur more frequently in the cases of primary floaters (18.6%) inhibitors compared with the cases of secondary floaters (10.0%), but this difference was not statistically significant (P = .273, chi-square test). We did find a relation between occurrence of breaks and PVD induction. In the cases with PVD induction, retinal breaks were found in 30.5%, and in the eyes that had preexisting PVD and did not require active induction, retinal breaks were found in only 11.6% of cases. This difference was statistically significant (P = .019, chi-square test). We measured the postoperative intraocular pressure (IOP) at day 1. Six eyes (5.2%) were hypotonus, defined as an IOP of 5 mm Hg or less.

In the analysis between 4 5 and 8 months of age the children ente

In the analysis between 4.5 and 8 months of age the children entered at the date of randomization to MV or no early MV and were censored at the date of the 9-month-MV; in the analysis from 9 to 17 months the children entered at the date of the 9-month MV and were censored at age 18 months. Children who were lost to follow-up were censored at the date when they were last seen alive. As NVAS may interact with subsequent VAS [9] we conducted an analysis in which we censored children at the time of the first VAS opportunity after they reached 6 months of age. Finally we calculated a combined estimate of the three NVAS trials with censoring of children

at the time of early MV. The analyses were post hoc analyses in the sense that the original trials were not designed to test the potential interaction,

but prespecified in the sense that we conceived the idea to study the interaction, based on observations GPCR Compound Library from other studies, prior to conducting the analyses. All the analyses are interaction analyses, since we evaluated NVAS effects in strata of the NVAS trial participants, namely those who did and those who did not receive early MV. The interaction analyses were stratified by sex, as both the NVAS and the early MV trial phosphatase inhibitor library found sex-differences. They were also stratified by the two age windows (4.5–8 months and 9–17 months) which were inherent in the design of the early MV trial. Hence, the potential interaction between NVAS and early MV was inhibitors assessed overall and in 4 subgroups defined by sex and age. We did not perform other interaction analyses than those described. With this limited number of subgroup analyses we did not find it indicated to adjust for multiple testing. A total of 5141 children participated both in NVAS trials and in the early MV trial; 2185 (42.5%) participated in VITA I, 130 (2.5%) in VITA II, and 2826 (55.0%) in VITA III. whatever The random allocation seemed conserved at age 4.5 months as the baseline characteristics at enrollment was evenly distributed between NVAS

and placebo groups except that slightly more NVAS recipients in VITA I were allocated to early MV, and NVAS recipients compared with placebo recipients in the no early MV group had very slightly higher mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC) (Table 2). Ninety-six percent of the children were breastfed at enrollment; 22% of these were exclusively breastfed. By 9 months of age, 92% were still breastfed, the proportions at both time points were similar in males and females (data not shown). Between enrollment into the early MV trial and 9 months of age, at the time of the usual MV, 43 deaths occurred in 1865 pyrs corresponding to a mortality rate (MR) of 23/1000 pyrs. However, the MR varied between the different groups (Fig. 1). In the early MV group having received NVAS was associated with significantly higher mortality compared with placebo (MR = 30 versus MR = 0, p = 0.01, Table 3). The effect was significant in males (p = 0.05) but not in females (p = 0.12).

5% Q-TOFMS provides accurate

MS/MS spectra due to mass d

5%. Q-TOFMS provides accurate

MS/MS spectra due to mass drift compensation and internal mass calibration during acquisition. Mass detection was optimized using the parameters described in method section and mass accuracy less than 5 ppm was obtained when compared with internal and external standards. selleck screening library Q-TOFMS was used in positive ion mode with a ramp setting for collision energy to obtain maximum information from the samples. A total number of 254 compounds were observed when analyzed with Qualitative MassHunter [B.04.00 Version] at a threshold more than 5000 counts per second. Tentatively identified metabolites were inspected carefully with help of MS/MS spectra available with http://spectra.psc.riken.jp [Table 1]. Some group of compounds i.e. catechins and other flavonoids and their ZD1839 cell line derivatives were identified by their characteristic mass fragments. Quercetin was identified by comparing its characteristic mass ion peaks at m/z 287, 229, 165 and 137. Glycosides of quercetin were identified by calculating the neutral ion losses of 162, 150 and 120 Da for O or C glycosides along with its characteristic mass ions. Catechin and its derivatives were identified

by comparing the mass ion peaks at m/z 139 and 273 along with neutral losses as discussed above. The study has developed and optimized a convenient, high-throughput, and reliable UPLC-QTOFMS method to analyze crude water extract from T. tomentosa. The identified and most abundantly present marker compounds accountable for the metabolite profile of regenerated L-NAME HCl bark of T. tomentosa were observed

which provides fingerprints for the authentication of plant bark. Overall, work can be utilized for the evaluation of quality of medicinal herbs having significance in the pharmacological and clinical investigation. All authors have none to declare. “
“Herbal drugs with constituents from different medicinal plants parts are extensively used and constitute a major source of health care products.1 Medicinal plants prove to be the best renewable pool for identification of clinically active compounds. Medicinal plant extracts and herbal preparations are complex mixtures of active- and ballast substances which may contain numerous, not infrequently up to several hundreds of different constituents with not exactly defined structures. Antimicrobial potential of medicinal plants and its correlation with phytoconstituents is also being evaluated.2, 3 and 4 Researchers target the herbal drug therapy as an alternate to Modulators antibiotics and focus on the traditionally recommended medicinal plants as they were effective in various diseases.5 However quality, safety, adulteration and storage stability of these herbal drugs are a great issue and their analysis is challenging.6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 In the study, ten plants extracts were taken and assessed for antifungal evaluation against three fungal strains by determining their MIC.

These mixed Th1/Th2 responses might explain the unbiased IgG1/2a

These mixed Th1/Th2 responses might explain the unbiased IgG1/2a ratio of anti-FliC induced by Libraries LCFS-immunization. In contrast to this reaction, the cells from mice immunized with FliC plus cSipC exhibited mainly Th2-type cytokine production. Greater amounts of IL-4 and IL-5 were produced by FliC-stimulation, and IL-4 and IL-10 this website were also induced by cSipC-stimulation. Notably, IL-12 was also released by stimulation with both FliC and cSipC. Therefore, these immune responses were mixed Th1/Th2-type although they were different from the immune responses by LCFS-immunization. The present

study demonstrated that FliC and FliC-fused antigens displayed on the cell-surface of L. casei elicit innate immune responses in vitro and showed that immunogenicities of these recombinant lactobacilli were affected by the species and the physical position

of the antigens. It was also suggested that the adoptive immunity induced by the recombinant lactobacilli was mixed but mainly Th1-type. Because flagellin is considered to be a potential adjuvant, information provided in this study could be useful for designing of vaccines using lactobacilli as delivery agents. This study was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare of Gemcitabine in vitro Japan (Research on Food Safety) and partly by a grant from the Food Safety Commission of Japan. “
“Humoral

immune responses have been traditionally associated with protection against influenza. In others addition, T cell responses against influenza virus in humans have been extensively documented [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6] and [7] and their contribution to protection against influenza has been reported in humans and animal models [8], [9], [10], [11] and [12]. T cells specific for influenza may not only play a role in recovery from infection, but have also been found to be protective in the absence of a protective antibody titer [8] and [10]. Importantly in older adults, a population with increased susceptibility to influenza infection, measures of the T cell response to influenza virus have a better predictive value for protection against influenza than the antibody response [13] and [14]. The role of T cell-mediated immunity in protection against culture-confirmed influenza has also been demonstrated in infants and young children [15]. Moreover, children who died because of influenza infection lacked CD8+ T cells in the lungs, suggesting the importance of an adequately functioning cellular immune response against influenza [16]. T cell responses to the conserved epitopes within the types and subtypes of influenza contained in a vaccine may also provide cross-protective immunity against pandemic influenza [17], [18], [19] and [20].

In addition, it is interesting to note that transgenic mice beari

In addition, it is interesting to note that transgenic mice bearing the HLA-DR molecules were more responsive than those bearing the second HLA class II molecules (DQ6 or DQ8). In agreement with these data the IgG specific responses in DR2 and DR4 transgenic mice were slightly better than in

mice bearing DQ6 and DQ8 molecules. Although some mice became nonresponsive a year after the immunization, the immune responses to StreptInCor were maintained for up to a year. These results GS-1101 also indicated that the vaccine epitope is able to induce a long period of specific immune responses, with IgG1 Modulators predominance due to the effects of the adjuvant. The balance between humoral and cellular immune responses induced by adjuvant formulations can be addressed through the isotype profile of the vaccine-specific IgG1 and IgG2a antibodies produced. The IgG1 isotype switch is dependent of IL-4 production in opposite to isotype IgG2a, which is IFN-γ dependent. We observed a huge predominance of specific IgG1 when compared to IgG2a and also to IgG3, another IFN-γ dependent isotype. It is interesting to note that some IgG2b, a TGF-β-depending switch,

was seen in some animals from all groups studied (DR2, DR4, DQ6 and DQ8). Finally, aluminum GDC-0973 nmr adjuvants are responsible for Th2 polarization, resulting in increased humoral immunity, mediated by production of IgG1 isotype. Considering pharyngitis is among the most common S. pyogenes infections, the induction of mucosal immune responses, mainly by IgA secretions, is attractive. Accordingly, other adjuvants are being assayed to obtain both systemic and mucosal immune responses.

One of the major challenges Adenylyl cyclase of producing a vaccine against to S. pyogenes is to not induce autoimmune responses and diseases such as RF and RHD. Although we know the mechanisms that lead the disease in humans [13], there have been no ideal in vivo models of the disease, except for in the Lewis rat [33], until our current study. As myosin is a putative auto-antigen involved in RHD development [33], [34], [35], [36], [37], [38] and [39], we used both human myocardium-derived proteins and porcine cardiac myosin to evaluate the presence of cross-reactive antibodies that could be triggered by the immunizations. No specific cross reactivity against heart proteins was observed indicating that StreptInCor did not induce autoimmune reactions. Myosin heavy chains have been categorized into several classes based on comparisons and phylogenetic analysis of the conserved regions [40], [41] and [42].

, 1994) The learned change in firing rate, when present, had sev

, 1994). The learned change in firing rate, when present, had several important features. First, it appeared in temporal register with the learned Entinostat solubility dmso change in eye velocity in the interval preceding the visual input caused by the instructive target motion. Second, it was present in the probe trials in the learning block (Figure 2A, blue trace) and had a transient time course that peaked near the instruction time. Third, it appeared during target

motion in a direction that did not evoke much neural activity before learning, as seen by comparison of the blue and black traces in Figure 2A. Therefore, the learned firing rate is related to the acquisition of a vertical response to the horizontal target motion and not to the horizontal eye movement itself, which changed very little as a consequence of learning (Figure 1F, top). Figure 2 shows an important feature of the data that motivated our analysis procedures. The averages of both eye velocity and firing rate selleck followed the same trajectory during learning trials and the interleaved probe trials, up to about 70 ms after the instruction time (Figure 2). Thereafter, the mean eye velocity and firing rate in the learning trials, but not the probe trials, showed large visually-driven reactions to the instructive change in target direction. The sequence of identical responses followed by divergence due to the visual stimulus is expected because

the learning and probe trials were interleaved randomly. It allowed us to assess neural changes related purely to learning from the more frequent learning trials in the 220 ms interval from 100 ms after the onset of target motion to 70 ms after the instruction time. We showed in Figure 2 that the size of the learned response could be very different across FEFSEM neurons even when the concomitant behavioral changes were similar. Only 35% of neurons (15/55 in Monkey G, 20/45 in Monkey S) exhibited a significant learned change in firing rate (Mann-Whitney

U test: p < 0.001). All neurons with statistically significant changes in firing rate showed increases in activity as a result of learning. Because the firing rate in the preceding fixation period ALOX15 almost always remained stable in spite of learning, we argue that the neural changes in the analysis interval probably are due to learning and not to fatigue, decreases in motivation, or recording instabilities. Finally, learning did not affect eye velocity during control trials and only five neurons showed significant changes in firing rate during the control trials from the baseline and learning blocks: 4/55 in Monkey G, 1/45 in Monkey S. Excluding neurons with significant changes in response amplitude during pursuit in the control direction did not alter any of our conclusions. Each neuron’s response during pursuit of a ramp target motion at constant velocity showed a distinct and repeatable trajectory as a function of time (e.g.

, 2009, Seo et al , 2009 and Sharma et al , 2008) Mutations in A

, 2009, Seo et al., 2009 and Sharma et al., 2008). Mutations in ACIII are associated with obesity in both mice and humans ( Nordman et al., 2008 and Wang et al., 2009b). Direct evidence of an association between cilia dysfunction and obesity comes from deleting Kif3a or Ift88 conditionally in adult mice. Cilia are stunted and animals

overeat, becoming obese. This occurs despite elevated leptin, a satiety signal, suggesting the satiety response is compromised in the absence of functional Protease Inhibitor Library cilia ( Davenport et al., 2007). Ciliated neurons that regulate feeding include a group of pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC)-expressing neurons in the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus. These cells respond to leptin by cleaving POMC to generate α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (α-MSH), which inhibits feeding, and mice in which Kif3a is selleck screening library deleted selectively from POMC neurons become obese ( Davenport et al., 2007 and Sharma et al., 2008). What ciliary signaling pathways in POMC neurons might modulate α-MSH production, however, remains unclear. The localization of leptin receptors to POMC cell cilia might be predicted, for

example, but has not been confirmed. Connecting Shh signaling with the cilium illuminates CNS defects found in cilliopathic syndromes and other human disease states. Ciliated cerebellar granule neuron precursors (GNPs) proliferate in a Shh-dependent manner in the external granule layer (EGL) of the developing cerebellum (Dahmane and Ruiz i Altaba, 1999, Wallace, 1999 and Wechsler-Reya and Scott, 1999). In mice with conditional deletions of Ift88 or Kif3a, cilia on EGL precursors are stunted, cerebellar granule neurons are fewer, and the cerebellum is hypoplastic, similar to its appearance in Joubert

through Syndrome ( Chizhikov et al., 2007 and Spassky et al., 2008). Learning disabilities are also a feature of several ciliopathies. Although associated defects in the hippocampus have yet to be reported in human patients, the hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) in mice is highly sensitive to the disruption of primary cilia. DG progenitor cells are ciliated, and respond to Shh to generate granule neurons (Breunig et al., 2008 and Han et al., 2008). Deleting Kif3a in DG progenitor cells stunts primary cilia, decreases Shh signaling in the DG, and inhibits the normal perinatal expansion of DG progenitor population. This reduces the main wave of production of DG neurons in the first three weeks after birth, as well as the initial allocation of radial astrocyte precursors that supply new DG neurons into adulthood ( Han et al., 2008). Similar results are seen in mice deficient in Ift88 ( Han et al., 2008) and in the stumpy mouse mutant, in which ciliogenesis is still more impaired ( Breunig et al., 2008 and Town et al., 2008). The adult neural stem cells of the DG are themselves ciliated, and the role of primary cilia in these cells awaits analysis of mice with deletion of cilia in adulthood.

, 2010) However, transient firing in mPFC units was not found fo

, 2010). However, transient firing in mPFC units was not found following ripple occurrence (Figures S7E and S7G). The apparent selleck inhibitor discrepancy with (Wierzynski et al., 2009) is most likely related to the fact that our data represent a different neuronal population in the mPFC where neuronal activity is highly modulated by slow waves (compare to their Figure 1), but differences in species and electrode

locations may contribute as well. More generally, the direction of the cortico-hippocampal dialogue in sleep has been a hotly debated issue. An influential suggestion has been that signals propagate from cortex to hippocampus during wakefulness and from hippocampus to cortex during sleep (Buzsaki, 1998). Since declarative memories become progressively more resistant to hippocampal damage, it is thought that the hippocampus “transfers” such memories to the cortex by replaying activity patterns during SWRs in sleep (Lee and Wilson, 2002). The current results add to existing evidence showing that during

NREM sleep neural activity propagates predominantly from the neocortex to the hippocampus (Hahn et al., 2007, Isomura et al., 2006, Ji and Wilson, 2007, Molle et al., 2006 and Sirota Pictilisib clinical trial et al., 2003). Future studies are needed to determine whether within this robust cortico-hippocampal broadcast there may be islands of functionally relevant hippocampo-cortical transmission (Tononi et al., 2006). While slow waves reflect spontaneous alternations of activity and silence in corticothalamic networks, what causes the transition from silence to activity in a given brain region remains unclear. Several scenarios could explain the source of transitions at the network level. One possibility is that whether and when a given region

will transition into an ON period is determined Oxymatrine by a global process such as subcortical common input, which could serve as a main “switch.” However, since most slow waves occur locally and since slow oscillations are also observed in vitro (Sanchez-Vives and McCormick, 2000), such a global mechanism seems implausible. A second possibility is that transitions to activity are stochastic and driven by intrinsic processes within each region. For example, currents that are activated close to the resting membrane potential (such as the hyperpolarization-activated depolarizing current; McCormick and Pape, 1990) could lead neurons to discharge during OFF periods and initiate activity that would then spread within a region, irrespective of other brain regions. A third possibility is that synaptic drive gradually builds up prior to the onset of ON periods, so that whether and when a region becomes active reflects the cumulative input to that region (Chauvette et al., 2010). By capitalizing on the amygdala, for which ipsilateral projections constitute the dominant input (Amaral et al.

LTP was induced by HFS of the mf in acutely isolated mouse hippoc

LTP was induced by HFS of the mf in acutely isolated mouse hippocampal slices (Figure 3, top panels). The amplitude of the mf-evoked field excitatory postsynaptic potential (fEPSP) was recorded from the CA3 pyramidal cell population in the presence of vehicle

or bath-applied ZX1. With vehicle, HFS of the mf induced LTP, as revealed by an increase of fEPSP magnitude of 149% ± 9% when find more measured 50–60 min after compared to the 10 min immediately preceding HFS (Figure 3, top left). The effects of ZX1 were concentration dependent, with some inhibition detectable at 50 μM; similar effects were obtained with 100 and 200 μM levels of ZX1, the inhibition approximating 60% of maximum (Figure 3, top right). Notably, ZX1 did not affect baseline transmission of the mf-CA3 pyramid synapse (Figure S6). A hallmark of mf-LTP is that increased Pr of glutamate from mf terminals underlies its expression (Zalutsky and Nicoll, 1990, Weisskopf and Nicoll, 1995, Tong et al., 1996 and Reid et al., 2004). To examine the role of zinc in the induction of mf-LTP, additional experiments were performed using whole-cell recordings of CA3 pyramids to analyze the effects of learn more ZX1 while simultaneously assessing paired pulse facilitation (PPF). PPF is a form of presynaptic

plasticity consisting of the enhancement of transmitter release in response to the second of two stimuli delivered at a short interval (e.g., 20–100 ms; Regehr and Stevens, 2001). PPF is normally inversely correlated with Pr, such that synapses with low Pr show larger PPF than synapses with higher Pr. PPF was measured by applying a pair of of pulses of stimulus intensity 30% that of maximum EPSC with a 60 ms interstimulus interval, and was defined as the amplitude of the EPSC evoked by pulse #2 divided by the amplitude of the EPSC evoked by pulse #1 (Figure 3B, bottom left). HFS of the mossy fibers in the presence of vehicle induced an increase of the EPSC amplitude of 188% ± 16% (n = 8) (Figure 3, middle left).

A significant reduction of PPF was evident 10–20 min following HFS (1.3 ± 0.1) compared to baseline levels prior to HFS (2.8 ± 0.5, p = 0.001, paired t test), confirming previous findings (reviewed in Nicoll and Schmitz, 2005; Figure 3, bottom left). Inclusion of 100 μM ZX1 in the bath reduced the HFS-induced increase of the EPSC (131% ± 21%, n = 9, p = 0.04 versus vehicle; Figure 3, middle right). ZX1 also prevented the HFS-induced reduction of PPF (before HFS 3.1 ± 0.5; after HFS 2.7 ± 0.7, t test p = 0.8; Figure 3, bottom right). Because PPF is a surrogate measure of Pr, this result implies that zinc is required for induction of this plasticity of the presynaptic terminal. The ZX1-mediated inhibition of mf-LTP and the decrease of PPF following HFS were confirmed in additional experiments performed with field potential recordings (Figure S5B).

For each K-means partition, the method computes

the disto

For each K-means partition, the method computes

the distortion, i.e., a normalized squared distance between each observation and its closest cluster center. Since the K-means partitioning may depend upon the starting points used, the K-means algorithm is repeated a number of times with different starting conditions, and a mean distortion for each prescribed value of k is obtained. A distortion curve is then generated by plotting the mean distortion as a function of k. The distortion tends to decrease as the number of clusters is increased, and this is transformed into an increase by raising the distortion to selleck screening library a negative power, Y. Because the distortion drops when the correct number of clusters is used, and remains roughly constant when even more clusters are employed, the transformed distortion exhibits a sudden increase, or jump, at the correct value of k. If one examines the size of the jumps in the transformed distortion, the largest jump is therefore an indication of the proper number of clusters. We also used MATLAB to perform a principal Selleck Hydroxychloroquine component analysis. We computed the principal components of the entire data set (30 properties) as well as the 15 properties that were significantly

different between the two populations. The authors would like to members of the Spruston laboratory for helpful discussions and Adam Hantman for reagents. A.R.G. was supported by F31 NS067758 and A.R.G. and S.J.M. were supported by T32 MH067564. The work was also supported by NIH RO1 NS35180, NS-046064, NS-077601, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. A.R.G., S.J.M., and N.S. designed the experiments. A.R.G. and S.J.M. collected the electrophysiological data, A.R.G. collected the morphological data, and

A.R.G. and E.B.B. performed the immunostaining and imaging. A.R.G. analyzed the data, with input from N.S. and help from W.L.K. to perform the cluster CYTH4 and principal component analyses. A.R.G., B.B.M., and N.S. wrote the manuscript, with input from the other authors. “
“The NAc plays a major role in the generation of motivated behaviors (Berridge, 2007; Ikemoto, 2007; Nicola, 2007). It is thought to facilitate reward seeking by integrating dopaminergic reinforcement signals with glutamate-encoded environmental stimuli (Brown et al., 2011; Day et al., 2007; Flagel et al., 2011; Phillips et al., 2003; Stuber et al., 2008). A prominent idea is that the glutamate input to the NAc encodes the context, cues, and descriptive features that characterize any given moment in time (Berke and Hyman, 2000; Everitt and Wolf, 2002; Kelley, 2004; Pennartz et al., 2011). Together, glutamate and dopamine can promote synaptic plasticity, which is thought to be a crucial neural mechanism in the NAc by which pertinent environmental cues become more salient than other stimuli (Kheirbek et al., 2009; Sun et al., 2008; Wolf and Ferrario, 2010).