<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/fcb10229-c9c1-44b4-af8e-d5091f829b44/FB921CBD-BB63-4B7E-AED0-4341271D716A/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.rikenresearch.riken.jp/research/631/" href="http://www.rikenresearch.riken.jp/research/631/" style="font-size: 11px;">www.rikenresearch.riken.jp</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.rikenresearch.riken.jp/research/631/"><div align="center"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.rikenresearch.riken.jp/img/6F6A5A67-DF26-4373-AF25-FFC22F9BB5FD" alt="photo" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.rikenresearch.riken.jp/research/631/"><DIV>Rewarding stimuli and addictive drugs both enhance the activity of dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the brain. Drugs of abuse, such as cocaine and amphetamine, can also produce long-lasting strengthening of synaptic communication between glutamate-secreting neurons and their dopamine neuron targets in the VTA. Such plasticity may play a role in the behavioral process of addiction.</DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.rikenresearch.riken.jp/research/631/"><H2 class="article-title">The rewards of courtship</H2></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.rikenresearch.riken.jp/research/631/"><P class="read">Social interactions with females induce synaptic plasticity in dopamine neurons of male songbirds</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.rikenresearch.riken.jp/research/631/"><DIV> Now, in a recent issue of <EM>PLoS ONE</EM><SUP>1</SUP>, Ya-Chun Huang and Neal Hessler at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Wako have reported that social courtship behavior in male zebra finches increases synaptic plasticity in VTA dopamine neurons in a similar fashion as previous studies have reported for drugs of abuse.</DIV></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/FB921CBD-BB63-4B7E-AED0-4341271D716A/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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