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ZT-In-Heat |
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Friday, June 2, 2006 at 12:30 AM This idea is based on a new understanding of dopamine, the brain chemical involved in motivation, pleasure and learning. Because addictive drugs like cocaine and nicotine cause a flood of dopamine in the brain, researchers once thought that the neurochemical was a simple pleasure switch, the body's own "reward" button. Yet something didn't add up. If dopamine delivers the pleasure message, addicts should be in a continual state of bliss—but most of them get very little pleasure from the drug, despite the surge of neurochemicals. "I've seen hundreds of addicted people, and never have I come across one who wanted to be addicted," says Volkow. As she began doing brain-imaging studies with drug addicts, that contradiction haunted her. In response, Volkow and other researchers are developing a new understanding of addiction. Rather than just telling us to feel good, dopamine tells us what's salient—the unexpected bits of new information we need to pay attention to in order to survive, like alerts about sex, food and pleasure, as well as danger and pain. If you are hungry and you get a whiff of a bacon cheeseburger, Volkow's research team has shown, your dopamine skyrockets. But the chemical will also surge if a lion leaps into your cubicle. Dopamine's role is to shout: "Hey! Pay attention to this!" Only as an afterthought might it whisper "Wow, this feels great." So maybe addicts aren't just chasing a good time. Perhaps their brains have somehow mistakenly learned that drugs are the most important thing to pay attention to, as crucial to survival as food or sex.
—ZT-In-Heat |
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TortillaFactory |
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Friday, June 2, 2006 at 12:39 AM Years of furiously posting news articles, and you finally hit on something that interests me. GO GO ZT. —TortillaFactory |
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MajandraFan |
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Friday, June 2, 2006 at 11:26 AM i used the word 'dopamine' in some place real or electronic recently. Turns out i used it kind of correctly. Sweet.
I can never tell if you're poking fun at these people or not when you link these articles. —MajandraFan |
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ZT-In-Heat |
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Friday, June 2, 2006 at 5:51 PM Years of furiously posting news articles, and you finally hit on something that interests me. GO GO ZT. —TortillaFactory The funny thing is, of all the articles I've ever posted, I thought the information in this one was the most redundant, cliche, worn-out, and not-news-worthy of all the science articles I've tried to edify you loveline callers with. So, what you're saying makes a lot of sense. —ZT-In-Heat |
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