# Synthetic Psychoactive "Bath Salt" Effects on Brain Activity and Behavior

> **NIH NIH R01** · MCLEAN HOSPITAL · 2020 · $757,567

## Abstract

Abstract
The abuse of substituted cathinones, the main psychoactive components of “bath salts” and other illicit
preparations, has emerged as a persistent public health concern over the past decade. Substituted cathinones,
like other phenethylamines including methamphetamine (MA) or (+/-)-3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine
(MDMA), produce their psychoactive effects through monoaminergic actions resulting from their ability to either
block the reuptake or increase the release of neuronal dopamine (DA) and/or serotonin (5-HT). New cathinones
are continually being introduced into the underground drug market and differ in one or more structural features,
but the balance of neurochemical activity at DA and/or 5-HT transporters is thought to be a key feature that
mediates the expression of their MA- or MDMA-like effects (i.e., stimulant or entactogen). However, little is known
about how substituted cathinones alter neural activity and whether, like their abuse-related behavioral effects,
regional patterns of activation may be related to the balance of their monoaminergic actions. This application, in
response to PAR 18-510, is designed to address this issue and proposes cutting-edge, integrated behavioral
pharmacology and neuroimaging studies in nonhuman primates to examine the abuse-related behavioral and
neural effects of substituted cathinones that vary in selectivity for DA and 5-HT release. First, as drug history is
known to play an important role in individual vulnerability to different types of drug abuse and relapse, substituted
cathinones will be compared in different groups of both male and female subjects that discriminate or self-
administer either MA (DA-selective) or MDMA (5-HT-selective). Next, using well-validated and translationally-
relevant animal behavioral models, the subjective, reinforcing, and relapse-inducing (reinstatement) effects of
selected cathinones will be compared to those of MA and MDMA. Finally, awake fMRI studies, conducted at
ultra-high field strength (9.4T), will be employed in the same subjects to identify key features in the patterns of
regional brain activity (neural signature) produced by substituted cathinones that may be related to their MA-like
or MDMA-like abuse-related effects. Overall, our planned studies will yield key insights to improve our
understanding of the roles of drug history and sex in the abuse-related behavioral effects and neural signatures
of different types of synthetic cathinones and, more generally, abused drugs with DA- and/or 5-HT-mediated
actions. Such information is essential for accelerating the development of novel treatment strategies for the
management of addiction to cathinones and other monoaminergic drugs.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9913490
- **Project number:** 5R01DA048150-02
- **Recipient organization:** MCLEAN HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Stephen John Kohut
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $757,567
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-04-15 → 2024-02-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9913490

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9913490, Synthetic Psychoactive "Bath Salt" Effects on Brain Activity and Behavior (5R01DA048150-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9913490. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*