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Lewis' 2011 book Memoirs of an Addicted Brain: A Neuroscientist Examines his Former Life on Drugs is a combination of traditional memoir and treatise on the neuroscience of drug addiction. Lewis alternates between stories from his own life and explanations of how drugs affect the neurochemistry of the brain, using his own experience with ...
In drug addiction, the drug-seeking behaviors become reinforced by the rush of dopamine that follows the administration of a drug of abuse. The effects of drugs of abuse on the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and the nucleus accumbens (NAc) have been studied extensively. [16] Drugs of abuse change the complexity of dendritic branching as well as ...
The hijack model of substance addiction explains that drugs that elicit positive emotion mediate incentive motivation in the nucleus accumbens of the brain. Put another way, addictive substances act on ancient and evolutionarily conserved neural mechanisms associated with positive emotions that evolved to mediate incentive behavior.
One form of behavioral neuropharmacology focuses on the study of drug dependence and how drug addiction affects the human mind. Most research has shown that the major part of the brain that reinforces addiction through neurochemical reward is the nucleus accumbens. The image to the right shows how dopamine is projected into this area.
For example, researchers have theorized that addiction is the result of the shift from goal-directed actions to habits and ultimately, to compulsive drug-seeking and taking. [18] [19] In other words, repeated, deliberate use of the drug plays a role in the eventual compulsory drug-taking and/or habitual drug-taking associated with addiction.
Under the model of alcoholism, alcohol use disorder is viewed as chronic problem for which abstinence is required. [4] A brain disease model of addiction, based on the extent of neuroadaptation and impaired control, is main position advanced for proposing a disease model of alcohol use disorder. [5]
In 2004, she won a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers for her research using a combination of molecular biology and high-resolution microscopy to identify and study brain neuronal networks that participate in the biology of various drugs of abuse. [2] Morales is a senior investigator at the National Institute on Drug ...
Studies have proven that genetic variations and differences in our neurobiology can alter an individual's vulnerability to developing an addiction. [32] Estimates have shown that around 40%-60% of the susceptibility of an individual to develop an addiction to drugs, nicotine, and alcohol is allotted to genetic variables. [32]