Publications

Solinas M, Chauvet C, Thiriet N, El Rawas R, Jaber M (2008) Reversal of cocaine addiction by environmental enrichment. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 105: 17145-50
Solinas M, Thiriet N, El Rawas R, Lardeux V, Jaber M (2009) Environmental Enrichment During Early Stages of Life Reduces the Behavioral, Neurochemical, and Molecular Effects of Cocaine. Neuropsychopharmacology 34:1102-11
El Rawas R, Thiriet N, Lardeux V, Jaber M, Solinas M (2009) Environmental enrichment decreases the rewarding but not the activating effects of heroin. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 203:561-70
El Rawas R, Saadé N, Thiriet N, Atweh S.F, Jaber M,Al-Amine H.A (2009) Developmental changes in the mRNA expression of neuropeptides and dopamine and glutamate receptors in Neonates and Adult Rats after Ventral Hippocampal Lesion. Schizophrenia Research 113(2-3):298-307
Fritz M, El Rawas R, Salti A, Klement S, Bardo MT, Kemmler G, Dechant G, Saria A, Zernig G (2011) Reversal of cocaine-conditioned place preference and mesocorticolimbic Zif268 expression by social interaction in rats. Addiction Biology 16(2):273-84
Fritz M, Klement S, El Rawas R, Saria A, Zernig G (2011) Sigma1 receptor antagonist BD1047 enhances reversal of conditioned place preference from cocaine to social interaction. Pharmacology 87(1-2):45-8
El Rawas R, Thiriet, N, Nader J, Lardeux V, Jaber M, Solinas M (2011) Early exposure to environmental enrichment alters the expression of genes of the endocannabinoid system. Brain research 1390:80-9
Fritz M, El Rawas R, Klement S, Kummer K, Eggart V, Mayer MJ, Salti A, Bardo MT, Saria A, Zernig G (2011) Differential Effects of Accumbens Core vs. Shell Lesions in a Rat Concurrent Conditioned Place Preference Paradigm for Cocaine vs. Social Interaction. PLOS one 6(10):e26761
Nader J*, Chauvet C*, El Rawas R*, Favot L, Jaber M, Thiriet N#, Solinas M# (2012) Loss of environmental enrichment increases vulnerability to cocaine addiction. Neuropsychopharmacology. 37(7):1579-87. (* and # equal contribution)
El Rawas R, Klement S, Salti A, Fritz M, Dechant G, Saria A, Zernig G (2012) Preventive role of social interaction for cocaine conditioned place preference: correlation with FosB/∆FosB and pCREB expression in rat mesocorticolimbic areas. Frontiers in behavioral Neuroscience 6 (8)
El Rawas R, Klement S, Kummer KK, Fritz M, Dechant G, Saria A, Zernig G (2012) Brain regions associated with the acquisition of conditioned place preference for cocaine vs. social interaction. Frontiers in behavioral Neuroscience 6 (63)
Kummer KK, Hofhansel L,Barwitz CM, Schardl A, Prast JM, Salti A, El Rawas R, Zernig G (2014) Differences in social interaction- vs cocaine reward in mouse vs rats. Frontriers in behavioral Neuroscience 8 (363)
Kummer KK, El Rawas R, Kress M, Saria A#, Zernig G# (2015) Social interaction and cocaine conditioning in mice increase spontaneous spike frequency in the nucleus accumbens or septal nuclei as Revealed by Multielectrode Array Recordings. Pharmacology 95:42-49 (# equal contribution)
El Rawas R, Saria A (2016) the two faces of social interaction reward in animal models of drug dependence. Neurochemical Research. Neurochem. Res. 41(3):492-9.
Salti A, Kummer KK, Sadangi C, Dechant G, Saria A, El Rawas R (2015) Social interaction reward decreases p38 activation in the nucleus accumbens shell of rats. Neuropharmacology 99:510-6
Bregolin T, Pinheiro B.S, El Rawas R, Zernig G (2017) Preventive strength of dyadic social interaction against reacquisition/re-expression of cocaine conditioned place preference. Frontiers in behavioral Neuroscience 11 (225)
Salti A, Apostolova G, Kummer KK, Lemos C, Dechant G, El Rawas R (2018) Cocaine paired environment increases SATB2 levels in the rats paraventricular thalamus. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 12 (224).
Ahmad Salti, Rana El Rawas. Late decrease of pCREB in the Basolateral Amygdala by Social Interaction Reward (2019). Biomed J Sci & Tech Res vol. 19(4), pages 14433-14438.
Lemos C, Salti A, Amaral I.M., Fontebasso V, Singewald N, Dechant G, Hofer A, El Rawas R. Social interaction in rats reward has anti-stress effects (2020). Addiction Biology. DOI: 10.1111/adb.12878
El Rawas R, Amaral IM, Hofer A. Social interaction reward: A resilience approach to overcome vulnerability to drugs of abuse. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2020;37:12-28. doi:10.1016/j.euroneuro.2020.06.008
El Rawas R, Amaral IM, Hofer A. Is p38 MAPK Associated to Drugs of Abuse-Induced Abnormal Behaviors?. Int J Mol Sci. 2020;21(14):E4833. Published 2020 Jul 8. doi:10.3390/ijms21144833
Amaral, I.M.; Lemos, C.; Cera, I.; Dechant, G.; Hofer, A.; El Rawas, R. Involvement of cAMP-Dependent Protein Kinase in the Nucleus Accumbens in Cocaine Versus Social Interaction Reward. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22, 345.
Amaral, I.M.; Hofer, A.; El Rawas, R. Is It Possible to Shift from Down to Top Rank? A Focus on the Mesolimbic Dopaminergic System and Cocaine Abuse. Biomedicines 2021, 9, 877.
Amaral IM, Scheffauer L, Langeder AB, Hofer A, El Rawas R. Rewarding Social Interaction in Rats Increases CaMKII in the Nucleus Accumbens. Biomedicines. 2021; 9(12):1886.
Amaral IM, Hofer A, El Rawas R. Implication of ERK in the expression of natural reward: evidence not found. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. 2022.
El Rawas R, Amaral IM, Hofer A. The anti-social brain in schizophrenia: a role of CaMKII? Frontiers in Psychiatry.
El Rawas R, Venniro M. Editorial: The Double Facets of Social Behavior in Drug Addiction. Front Behav Neurosci. 16:907327
Amaral IM, Scheffauer L, Hofer A, El Rawas R. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2022 Oct 13;221:173472. doi: 10.1016/j.pbb.2022.173472. Online ahead of print. PMID: 36244528
Granza AE, Amaral IM, Monteiro DG, Salti A, Hofer A, El Rawas R. Social Interaction Is Less Rewarding in Adult Female than in Male Mice. Brain Sciences. 2023; 13(10):1445.
Ouaidat S, Amaral IM, Monteiro DG, Harati H, Hofer A, El Rawas R. Orexins/Hypocretins: Gatekeepers of Social Interaction and Motivation. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2024; 25(5):2609.
Amaral I.M., Ouaidat, S., Scheffauer, L. et al. Exploring the role of orexins in the modulation of social reward. Psychopharmacology (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-024-06688-5