PSYC 207 Lecture 13: Dopamine
Document Summary
Opponent process theory of drug addiction (aka withdrawal theory) Went from taking drugs to feel good to taking drug to feel normal . Caffeine binds to adenosine receptors before adenosine can to prevent sleepiness. Adenosine receptors sense this and add more adenosine receptors to the dendrite. When caffeine isn"t present you start to feel withdrawal effects, caffeine half life of 8 hours, aka we wake up in withdrawal every morning. Brain is now oversensitized bc we have way more adenosine receptors than we should. After not drinking caffeine for a while, the adenosine system realizes it"s oversensitized and removes the extra receptors. Relapse: going back to drug that gave up withdrawal effects. Different drugs have different levels of withdrawal effects. Associative learning principles used in addiction models. Reinforcement - positive reinforcer, incentive salience: gets a positive response from a neutral object like a lever that gives sugar, rat gets excited by just the sight of the lever.
