Opioid modulation of attention-related responses: peripheral-to-central progression and development of mu influence as learning occurs

Abstract

 Endogenous opioids modulate attention-related bradycardiac responses evoked by novel stimuli and Pavlovian conditioned signals, and these effects are distinct from those of endogenous opioids on memory. We investigated the role of peripheral opioid receptors in modulating attention and Pavlovian learning, in rabbits tested for bradycardiac orienting responses to novel tones, and for Pavlovian conditioning and extinction of cardiac discrimination. Pretraining, IV treatment with the opiate antagonist naloxone-HCl (0.1–0.5 mg/kg) facilitated initial development of Pavlovian conditioned discrimination and delayed its later extinction, compared to saline vehicle, as previously observed. Pretraining treatment with its peripherally acting analog, quaternary naloxone-methiodide (1.29–6.47 mg/kg), also promoted initial development, but not extinction, of discrimination, and it reduced the magnitude of bradycardiac orienting responses and of tachycardiac unconditioned responses. Treatment with the selective μ-antagonist peptide CTOP (10–30 μg/kg) facilitated conditioned responses and reduced unconditioned responses, somewhat later during training, but it did not reliably affect extinction or orienting responses. These results confirm an important role of peripheral opioids in regulating attentional and associative functions involved in orienting and the earliest stage of Pavlovian learning, prior to development of central opioid regulation of later associative, hedonic and mnemonic functions. These findings also suggest that cardiovascular opioid receptors might mediate peripheral opioid influences on attention and early association formation, via modulation of cardiac responses to stimuli and autonomic sensory feedback to the brain.