Posts Tagged ‘neurobiology’
Addiction: “Drugs, Brains, and Behavior – The Science of Addiction”
No CommentsThroughout much of the last century, scientists studying drug abuse labored in the shadows of powerful myths and misconceptions about the nature of addiction. When science began to study addictive behavior in the 1930s, people addicted to drugs were thought to be morally flawed and lacking in willpower. Those views shaped society’s responses to drug abuse, treating it as a moral failing rather than a health problem, which led to an emphasis on punitive rather than preventative and therapeutic actions. Today, thanks to science, our views and our responses to drug abuse have changed dramatically. Groundbreaking discoveries about the brain have revolutionized our understanding of drug addiction, enabling us to respond effectively to the problem.
Depression, antidepressants, and the shrinking hippocampus
No CommentsThroughout human history, it has been apparent that few medical maladies are as devastating in their effects as major depression. And since the 1950s, with the advent of the first generation of antidepressants, it has been apparent that depression is a biological disorder. This has generated the tremendous intellectual challenge of how to understand the material, reductive bases of a disease of malignant sadness.
Brain Dopamine Receptor Density Correlates With Social Status
No CommentsPeople have typically viewed the benefits that accrue with social status primarily from the perspective of external rewards. A new paper in the February 1st issue of Biological Psychiatry, published by Elsevier suggests that there are internal rewards as well. Dr. Martinez and colleagues found that increased social status and increased social support correlated with the density of dopamine D2/D3 receptors in the striatum, a region of the brain that plays a central role in reward and motivation, where dopamine plays a critical role in both of these behavioral processes.
