Areas of the brain in which it has been reported include: hippocampus, retrosplenial cortex, visual cortex, hypothalamus, amygdala, nucleus accumbens, thalamus, raphe nucleus, subiculum, superior and inferior colliculi, and islands of Calleja.

Capacity for transport and affinity for these substrates may vary between rat and human isoforms however.

[9] Transport activity of OCT3 is inhibited by recreational and pharmaceutical drugs, including MDMA, phencyclidine (PCP), MK-801, amphetamine, methamphetamine and cocaine.

[10] This effect of glucocorticoids is believed to explain the phenomenon of stress-induced relapse in recovering addicts, where dopamine transport inhibition causes reactivation of hypersensitive dopamine pathways involved in drug-seeking behavior and incentive salience.

This article incorporates text from the United States National Library of Medicine, which is in the public domain.