| Summary: | 博士 === 國立中正大學 === 心理學研究所 === 89 === The areca nut is habitually chewed by 600 million people in southeastern Asian areas. Its usage is spreading into American and European areas by the immigrants. The nut is known to induce oral cancer but the user population steadily increases indicating the loss of intake control. However, areca nut''s addictive potential and the behavioral and neurological mechanisms have not been delineated. There are two basic motivational components in the development of addictive behavior: primary (SME) and secondary (PME) motivational effects. In this study, a lickometer was used to examine the PME of areca nut extracts in rats, and the conditioned place preference (CPP) method was used to examine the SME of both areca nut extracts and the nut''s major alkaloid, arecoline. Results indicate that (a) areca nuts possess positive reinforcing properties, (b) arecoline also possesses positive reinforcing properties, (c) arecoline''s reinforcing properties is mediated by both muscarinic and opiate systems and not by dopamine system, (d) similarly, the reinforcing properties of areca nuts is mediated by both muscarinic and opiate systems and probably also by dopamine system. Thus, it may be that the areca nut''s reinforcing property becomes conditioned to the environmental stimuli to form drug seeking behavior, and this behavior is mediated by arecoline activation of the muscarinic or opiate systems of the brain circuitry that controls the behavioral reinforcement effects.
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