PSYC 3300 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Hallucinogen, Reward System, The Reward
Document Summary
What is a drug: a substance that when administered, alters the body or the body functions. Psychoactive drugs: drugs that have psychological effects, stimulants, depressants, hallucinogens. Addiction: addiction is characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli, despite adverse consequences. Addiction: the development of an addiction seems to depend on a combination of learning and reward, alterations in brain regions responsible for both. The reward system: reward is the positive effect something has on you, something that is rewarding effects our future behavior/decisions. Initially we must learn that something is rewarding or pleasurable: a specific drug, a new experience, sex, food, etc, dopamine release is the brains response to something new or unexpected. In the brain, reward is communicated via dopamine release. Learning and dopamine: dopamine is released when things are unexpected, when there are errors in prediction, this is when learning occurs.
