440th Brookhaven Lecture
Year: 2008
Type: article
Abstract: A drug-addicted person may set a goal to abstain from taking drugs, yet soon afterwards he or she will ignore all warnings or reprimands, take an excessive amount of a drug, and possibly go much farther, such as trade in a car, or another valuable possession, for a couple of cocaine hits. This disadvantageous decision-making and drug- seeking behavior may continue despite catastrophic personal consequences -- for example, loss of job, health, or family -- even when the drug is no longer perceived as pleasurable. A series of brain-mapping studies and neuropsychological tests conducted at BNL has shown that people addicted to cocaine have an impaired ability to process rewards and exercise control, in a way that is directly linked to changes in the responsiveness in their prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain essential for advantageously monitoring and controlling one's own behavior. Goldstein will describe her research in this field, which was designed to test a theoretical model postulating that drug-addicted individuals disproportionately attribute value to their drug of choice -- at the expense of other potentially but no-longer-rewarding stimuli and at the same time, experience decreased ability to inhibit their drug use.
Author: Rita Z. Goldstein
Language: English
Subfield: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W49832846