You've probably heard of the brain's reward network. It's activated by basic needs — including food, water and sex — and releases a surge of the feel-good neurotransmitter dopamine when those needs are met. But it can also be hijacked by drugs, which lead to a greater dopamine release than those basic needs.
The review looked at more than 100 studies and review papers on drug addiction, all of which studied a type of brain scan called functional magnetic resonance imaging . For example, the memory network is pretty much ignored in research on substance-use disorders, Zilverstand said. This network allows humans to learn non-habit-based things, such as a new physics concept or a history lesson. Some research has suggested that in people with substance-use disorders, stress shifts the person's learning and memory away from the memory network to the habit network, which drives automatic behavior, such as seeking and taking drugs.
Which comes first, the brain activity or the drug use?"For me, the most surprising [finding] was how consistent the effects were across addictions," Zilverstand said. What's more,"the fact that the effects are quite independent of the specific drug use points to them being something general that might actually precede drug use rather than be a consequence of drug use."
The good news, however, is that activity in four of these networks — executive, reward, memory and salience — moves back toward"normal" once drug use ends."We know that four of the networks recover but not yet what happens to the other two networks," Zilverstand said in an email.
Source: Education Headlines (educationheadlines.net)
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