Are we all addicts
by Satanus 8 Replies latest jw friends
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BurnTheShips
Yes
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Satanus
? Just read a science article where they said that being addictable results from a 'switch' being flipped by a protein in the brain. Thereafter, it seemed that it cannot be switched back. This switch can be triggered by almost anything, video games, tobbacco, booze, and prolly food. Many people can control it, though. And we can choose our drugs. Mine's coffee, at least in the morning. In the eve, it's generally this site.
S
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PrimateDave
I've been trying to become addicted to running. I felt especially good during a run last weekend, so hopefully progress is being made.
Dave
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BurnTheShips
Just read a science article where they said that being addictable results from a 'switch' being flipped by a protein in the brain.
Proteomics. Once we master that science, we will conquer the WORLD! Muahahahaha!
I've been trying to become addicted to running.
Runners high rocks. I kayaked a few miles up a river recently, then made a steep fast hike a couple of miles up to a beautiful waterfall. Jumped in the cold mountain water pool. I got high.
BTS
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doofdaddy
I challenged my habits at one point to understand the basis for addiction. Wow there was so much I did (do) without being aware of it.
Finally my ego got disturbed by my constantly changing the borders, so I came to realise that humans and animals generally, are creatures of habit.
It's a matter of of sifting out what's a harmless habit and what's a dangerous addiction.
A fine line.
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Satanus
I get a buzz after i do a job well. I look at it for a while, and then, the bzzzz.
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Satanus
Here is the article, it's from physorg:
'Flipping the brain's addiction switch without drugs
May 28th, 2009
When someone becomes dependent on drugs or alcohol, the brain's pleasure center gets hijacked, disrupting the normal functioning of its reward circuitry.
Researchers investigating this addiction "switch" have now implicated a naturally occurring protein, a dose of which allowed them to get rats hooked with no drugs at all.
The research will be published Friday in the journal Science.
"If we can understand how the brain's circuitry changes in association with drug abuse, it could potentially suggest ways to medically counteract the effects of dependency," said Scott Steffensen, a neuroscientist at Brigham Young University who co-authored the study with two of his undergraduate students, one of his grad students, and a team of researchers at the University of Toronto.
Chronic drug users, as noted by previous research, can experience an increase of a naturally-occurring protein called BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) in the brain's reward circuitry, a region scientists call the ventral tegmental area. In this study, the researchers took the drugs out of the equation and directly infused extra BDNF onto this part of the brain in rats.
The Toronto team noted that a single injection of BDNF made rats behave as though they were dependent on opiates (which they had never received). Though rats instinctively prefer certain smells, lighting and texture, these rats left their comfort zone in search of a fix.
"This work may reveal a mechanism that underlies drug addiction," said lead author Hector Vargas-Perez, a neurobiologist at the University of Toronto.
The BYU team confirmed that the protein is a critical regulator of drug dependency. After the BDNF injection, specific chemicals that normally inhibit neurons in this part of the brain instead excited them, a "switch" known to occur when people become dependent on drugs.
Steffensen, who teaches in BYU's psychology department, says this work suggests that BDNF is crucial for inducing a drug dependent state, one important aspect of drug addiction.
Source: Brigham Young University (news : web)S
