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Although amphetamines can acutely improve attention and reaction time, chronic use can disrupt emotional and cognitive processes mediated by pathways from the amygdala to the prefrontal cortex (PFC). These researchers further studied the effects of repeated amphetamine administration in rats.
Rats received 2 mg/kg of amphetamine or saline every other day for 10 days, followed by a 2-week washout. According to electrophysiological recordings in single neurons, repeated amphetamine dosing was associated with less sensitivity in the medial PFC (mPFC) to inhibitory basolateral amygdala (BLA) input and enhanced responsiveness to excitatory BLA input. The repeated-amphetamine group showed tolerance to a later single amphetamine dose and tolerance …