Drug Addiction and Abuse - The Stop and Go Switch - The Brains Control Circuitry
Uploaded on Jan 20, 2009 / 458 views / 545 impressions / 0 comments
Description
These GO and STOP controls are in the old brain - where survival and automatic body functions, emotions and habits reside. Psychoactive drugs activate the GO switch creating the desire to repeat the behavior. An addicts MORE is a lot more. Perhaps...
These GO and STOP controls are in the old brain - where survival and automatic body functions, emotions and habits reside. Psychoactive drugs activate the GO switch creating the desire to repeat the behavior. An addicts MORE is a lot more. Perhaps even 1000 times more. Once the GO switch is on, it stays on; there is no feedback to stop. The massive amounts of dopamine released by all addictive substances (and behaviors) actually causes destruction of the part of the brain and neurons involved with the STOP switch.
