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Health and medicine
Course: Health and medicine > Unit 14
Lesson 1: Drug abuse and drug addictions- Drug abuse and drug addiction
- Overview of psychoactive drugs
- Psychoactive drugs: Depressants and opiates
- Psychoactive drugs: Stimulants
- Psychoactive drugs: Hallucinogens
- Routes of drug entry
- Drug dependence and homeostasis
- Reward pathway in the brain
- Tolerance and withdrawal
- Risk factors for drug use and drug abuse
- Substance use disorders
- The development of substance use - Why do people use legal and illegal substances?
- Why do some people but not others develop substance use problems?
- Treatments and triggers for drug dependence
- How does substance use develop into substance abuse
- Drug use prevention - school programming and protective factors
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Reward pathway in the brain
The reward pathway of the brain is connected to areas of the brain that control behavior and memory. It begins in the ventral tegmental area, where neurons release dopamine to make you feel pleasure. The brain begins to make connections between the activity and the pleasure, ensuring that we will repeat the behavior. Sometimes this pathway is helpful but other times, it can be devastating. For example, certain drugs can trigger the reward pathway and over time, an addiction can develop.. Created by Carole Yue.
Want to join the conversation?
- how do we know if if a stimulus is pleasurable in the first place in order for the brain to start releasing dopamine? ( the happy feeling comes from dopamine attaching to amyglada, so we would feel happy after recognizing the stimulus is pleasurable?)(6 votes)
- Great question. The topic is still under research, but from what I know, rewards are classified into primary and secondary rewards. Primary rewards are also called unlearned rewards: they are the kinds of things that aid your survival. Primary rewards include food and sex, or even peeing after holding it for too long. Some argue that social rewards like grooming and touch, or music are also primary. These primary rewards are thought to be hardwired into our brain to activate the dopamine. In other words, there's a pathway from birth in your brain (That is maybe connected to your digestive system, or maybe it's activated by the sight of food) that activates when you eat food so you can enjoy the experience. Secondary rewards are associated with events that lead to obtaining primary rewards. The best example given for a secondary reward in often presented as obtaining money. Though it is a learned response to enjoy earning money, your brain has learned that in the end it leads to primary rewards.
Drugs bypass the recognition of reward pathway and give you the reward. I don't know if drugs are considered primary or secondary.(14 votes)
- At, the Nucleus accumbens (Nacc) does not control the body's motor functions. Traditionally, the dorsal straitum "controls motor functions" which could be a misrepresentation within itself. One could point to the primary motor cortex for that function where as the VTA dorsal straitum pathway might be (the scientist in me is coming out) associated with action selection. Phasic DA release in the VTA Nacc pathway appears to be associated with assigning value to stimuli in an environment/internal environment (seen by schultz and more recently confirmed with optogenetics/Fast scan cyclic voltommetry with sadderis in late 2014) in order to motivate an animal towards the most rewarding stimuli (this includes avoiding negative stimuli, check out Erik B. Oleson). It is also worth noting that the anterior VTA extends to the dorsal striatum (the substantia nigra also extends here) where as the posterior portion of the VTA extends to the medial lateral Nacc. 2:05DA is not associated with hedonia (pleasure) as laid out by Jeremy Day in a wonderful review on the subject. 5:34the PFC does not focus attention on a stimuli, the VTA PFC pathway may essentially be a feedback loop for this system but this idea has not been fully explored as of yet. More predominately the VTA-PFC pathway assigns a "cached value" (first put forth by paul philips out at UW) to a stimuli as observed in various fMRI studies (more work needs to be done here). 5:15
I really love Khan academy and I was looking for a introductory video on the subject for incoming lab techs.(7 votes) - Why do serotonin levels go down when dopamine spikes causes pleasure and rewards? I thought some drugs bind to serotonin receptors so that is why people may become happy or experience mood swings? I feel like dopamine and serotonin mechanisms and functions seem to have overlay, and I could really use some clarification with both NT's. Thanks!(6 votes)
- addiction does not necessarily have to be with drugs correct? what about morbidly obese people who are essentially addicted to eating food. if you add something that makes them sick with the food, they will probably still eat it.(4 votes)
- I feel like in the context of obesity, adding a stimulus that makes them sick could actually deter them from eating because the sickness incurred takes more precedence over any pleasure they might gain from eating. As such, behavioral treatments that use classical and operant conditioning demonstrate some success in weight loss. Even after gastric bypass surgery, some patients will stop eating at the point of feeling nauseous because the amount of food they can take in is drastically reduced. Of course, there are cognitive, emotional, and motivational elements associated with overeating, and individual differences may lead some to overeat even though they feel sick.(5 votes)
- But why would you use rats, when we are so different from them. I know it's better than humans but, why rats?(4 votes)
- Rats are actually pretty similar to humans in some ways, (when compared to other animals) just a lot smaller.(5 votes)
- What exactly causes dopamine to be released? What's the mechanism/pathway for the production and release of dopamine?(3 votes)
- Drugs affect it in different ways, most drugs activate Dopamine circuits either by forcing it out (Methamphetamine) or inhibiting its reuptake (cocaine).(2 votes)
- Onwhy do scientists use rats for testing on types of drugs 7:14(1 vote)
- Rats are also used because of the less damage potentials. Although some humans believe that testing on animals, violates their rights.(5 votes)
- this is the left hemisphere not right!(0 votes)
- When talking about left and right in anatomy, you've got to picture the body part as your own. In this case you see the brain as if split down the middle, and the front of the face would be turned toward the left. You are seeing the right hemisphere "from the inside" of the brain.(6 votes)
- I remember reading about a drug that when taken causes alcohol to make a person sick, therefore decreasing the desire for alcohol but this seems to act counter to what was mentioned in the video, does this mean alcohol addiction works differently in the brain?(2 votes)
- How does your brain know whether or not something is considered "rewarding"?(2 votes)
- because your brain records and analyzes the taste and when it sees that food it matches it up with the food you ate in that fancy French place, so it "remembers" the taste and thinks "this is that delicious cake I had before - I want more!"(1 vote)
Video transcript
- [Voiceover] Think about a time when you felt happy or particularly rewarded and this could be maybe
somebody gave you a hug or you received some verbal praise or maybe you just ate a particularly excellent piece of cake. In any of these situations, your brain is responding in a similar way. Even though you had different stimuli, they all indicated that
you were feeling rewarded. So what we're gonna
talk about is the reward pathway in the brain. So this is your brain. Pretend you've sliced a brain in half and you're looking at the
right hemisphere here. So here's your brain
stem, prefrontal cortex, and the rest of it. So what I'm gonna focus
on is a few specific parts of the brain and when you first experience pleasure, your brain releases a neurotransmitter
called dopamine. So I'm just gonna write
dopamine off to the side. So the dopamine is primarily
produced in this area which is called the ventral
tegmental area or VTA. The vental tegmental
area is in the mid-brain and when it releases dopamine
in the reward circuit it actually goes to a lot of
different parts of the brain. So one of the places
the VTA sends dopamine is to the amygdala so
that's kind of in this area. The amygdala deals with
emotions among other things. It also sends dopamine up to the nucleus accumbens which is around here and the nucleus accumbens controls your body's motor functions. So then we also send dopamine up to the prefrontal cortex which helps focus attention and planning. And the last area that
we're gonna talk about where the VTA sends
dopamine is the hippocampus which is kind of right around here. Just to note, that hippocampus
dot should probably be a little closer to the amygdala, a little more to the left. The hippocampus is in the temporal lobe not the brain stem. We're just drawing it here
so it's a little easier to separate out from the other parts that we're talking about. And the hippocampus is responsible for the formation of memories. So now we've set up all
the parts of this pathway and what happens is
that when you experience a stimulus and the dopamine in the VTA is released and travels
along these pathways, it basically tells your body that this was good, let's do it again so this is your natural response to some pleasurable stimuli such as food, sex, social interactions, also certain drugs, particularly stimulants such as cocaine or amphetamines
can initiate this response. And of course, different stimuli activate the circuit to different degrees and when we're talking about drugs, that's one reason that
some drugs are easier to become dependent on than others. They activate the reward circuit to a greater degree than others. The nucleus accumbens, the amygdala, and the hippocampus are all part of something called the mesolimbic pathway and as a side note, try not to get too caught up in the terms. These terms like mesolimbic pathway, mesostriatal pathway, sometimes they're used
in slightly different ways by different people and sometimes they're broken down into even more detail. Our purpose here is to hit the highlights, the really important parts
of the reward pathway so I'm just gonna use some of the more common terms. The mesolimbic pathway is a big part of the reward circuit in the brain. So what happens is the
VTA releases dopamine and it goes to all these different parts of the brain which have dopamine receptors so they uptake with dopamine and the result is a feeling
of happiness or euphoria which is the reward you get. So for example, the amygdala, which helps process emotions and is connected to the hippocampus, will say, "This was a
pleasurable sensation, "I enjoyed it," and then your hippocampus will say, "Well, let
me remember everything "about this environment
so we can do this again." For example, let's go back to that excellent piece of cake
you might be eating. Your amygdala says, "This is delicious, "I love this, I'm feeling
so happy right now," and your hippocampus says, "Well, let me "remember what restaurant I'm at, "what exact piece of cake I ordered, "who I'm with, let's remember things "about this experience." Then your nucleus accumbens, which helps control motor functions, says, "Well, let's take another bite. "Let me use my hand to use the fork "to get another piece and eat it." And your prefrontal cortex
helps focus on that cake and divert some of your attention to it. And then you take another bite and it's delicious and the reward circuit goes crazy again and
the dopamine goes out, and that's why you experience the sort of continued pleasure. And one interesting thing to note is that with the continued activation of this reward circuit, we talked about how dopamine goes up and at the same time a neurotransmitter called serotonin goes down and serotonin is partially responsible for feelings of satiation. So this is why drugs can be problematic when you continually activate this dopaminenergic circuit,
this reward circuit. Your dopamine goes up so you have this increasing sense of euphoria but also serotonin levels can go down which means you're less likely to be satiated or content. What you might notice about this cycle is that it's a very
biologically driven process. A long time ago, people used to think that drug addiction was completely driven by a failure or morals or willpower. And while people's choices are definitely strongly involved, we
know now that addiction has physiological components as well. It's similar to looking at
your family history to see if you might have a genetic predisposition for high blood pressure or something. If someone in your family
has high blood pressure or has suffered from a drug addiction, then you may have some increased risk to develop the same condition. However, environment and
your choices matter too so don't worry, nothing's set in stone. Some evidence for the biological basis of drug dependence actually
comes from animal models. Scientists could hook rats
up to IVs that give them cocaine if they push a
lever and when they do this, rats learn very quickly to push that lever and they'll even engage
in drug-seeking behaviors and will increase their
dosage if they're allowed to. What's also really interesting is that negative consequences don't
affect an addicted brain in the same way that
they do a normal brain. For example, when you
give a rat regular food that it likes paired with a substance that makes it sick, it
learns to avoid that food. It doesn't like it anymore. But when you give an addicted
rat its favorite drug paired with a substance
that makes it sick, it still wants that drug. So whereas with the
regular food it learns that "Oh, something bad happened
when I ate this food, "I'm not going to do it anymore," with the drug it says, "Oh, something bad "happened when I took this drug, "but I don't really care,
I really need that reward." And what those kinds of studies show us is that addiction seems to take over a rational mind. So what we'll talk about in the next video is tolerance or how you get accustomed to certain levels of reward and withdrawal so how you react when those
pleasurable sensations are taken away from you.