methamphetamine travels through the
bloodstream to the nucleus accumbens a
central reward center for the brain this
is a release site for the
neurotransmitter dopamine the chemical
key to human pleasure dopamine is a
natural chemical that causes us to feel
good more dopamine means more pleasure
it’s one of the ways the brain rewards
behavior that helps us survive food and
sex are two of the highest natural
pleasures in mice they can trigger
around 150 units of dopamine but drugs
trick the brain to go even further meth
actually sneaks into the neurons and
forces more dopamine out one hit of meth
may trigger more than 1,200 units of
dopamine that’s a rush three and a half
times more intense than cocaine and
about six times what the body can do on
its own and the meth high lasts much
longer than other drugs up to 12 hours
but the higher the climb the harder the
fall
scientists at the Oregon Health and
Science University in Portland study the
drug to understand its long-term effect
on the brain and search for a way to
stop the addiction among their subjects
mice on meth in the lab researchers
teach mice that by pressing on a bar
they can get a dose of meth even for
rodents the meth triggers pleasure so
the mice quickly learned to seek the
reward
so this Mouse knows that by hitting that
bar in the back that’s correct
and yet yes you originally learned
that’s right he originally learned that
if he would press that bar in the back
he would get a dose of methamphetamine
then the meth is removed dr. Gregg mark
explains what happens next we basically
turned off the little pump that gave him
methamphetamine and he slowly stopped
taking the drug and now things like the
stressful situation will make him go
back and look for that drug again even
though it’s not gonna give them anything
and you can see he’s very dense isn’t
that far yeah it’s very interesting that
blur Wow look look at here he goes again
even when they succeed in getting a hold
of meth human addicts can feel just as
trapped as the frantic Mouse they just
keep chasing that first euphoric high
but it keeps getting harder and harder
to find in time addicts can experience
pleasure at all with or without the drug
their brains won’t let them studies
reveal that meth actually damages the
brain perhaps forever it’s the body’s
way of fighting back against the drug
that’s pushing out dopamine the brain
shuts the overloaded neurons down meth
users go from having too much dopamine
to having too little
bloodstream to the nucleus accumbens a
central reward center for the brain this
is a release site for the
neurotransmitter dopamine the chemical
key to human pleasure dopamine is a
natural chemical that causes us to feel
good more dopamine means more pleasure
it’s one of the ways the brain rewards
behavior that helps us survive food and
sex are two of the highest natural
pleasures in mice they can trigger
around 150 units of dopamine but drugs
trick the brain to go even further meth
actually sneaks into the neurons and
forces more dopamine out one hit of meth
may trigger more than 1,200 units of
dopamine that’s a rush three and a half
times more intense than cocaine and
about six times what the body can do on
its own and the meth high lasts much
longer than other drugs up to 12 hours
but the higher the climb the harder the
fall
scientists at the Oregon Health and
Science University in Portland study the
drug to understand its long-term effect
on the brain and search for a way to
stop the addiction among their subjects
mice on meth in the lab researchers
teach mice that by pressing on a bar
they can get a dose of meth even for
rodents the meth triggers pleasure so
the mice quickly learned to seek the
reward
so this Mouse knows that by hitting that
bar in the back that’s correct
and yet yes you originally learned
that’s right he originally learned that
if he would press that bar in the back
he would get a dose of methamphetamine
then the meth is removed dr. Gregg mark
explains what happens next we basically
turned off the little pump that gave him
methamphetamine and he slowly stopped
taking the drug and now things like the
stressful situation will make him go
back and look for that drug again even
though it’s not gonna give them anything
and you can see he’s very dense isn’t
that far yeah it’s very interesting that
blur Wow look look at here he goes again
even when they succeed in getting a hold
of meth human addicts can feel just as
trapped as the frantic Mouse they just
keep chasing that first euphoric high
but it keeps getting harder and harder
to find in time addicts can experience
pleasure at all with or without the drug
their brains won’t let them studies
reveal that meth actually damages the
brain perhaps forever it’s the body’s
way of fighting back against the drug
that’s pushing out dopamine the brain
shuts the overloaded neurons down meth
users go from having too much dopamine
to having too little
Please follow and like us: