Psychology 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Motivational Interviewing, Nicotine, Mesolimbic Pathway

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1000
• Professor: Dr.Mike

Document Summary

When you first experience pleasure, brain releases neurotransmitter called dopamine. Different stimuli active circuit to dif degrees. Vta releases dopamine and receptors uptake dopamine amygdala says this was enjoyable, hippocampus remembers and says let"s do it again, and nucleus accumbens says let"s take another bite. At same time dopamine goes up, serotonin goes down, partially responsible for feelings of satiation. Biological basis comes from animal models ex. Rats and drug experiment, rats keep increasing dosage. Or if sick drug + favorite food = avoids it, addictive drug + fav food = wants more. Tolerance means you get used to a drug so you need more of it to achieve the same effect: ex. Just took cocaine, lots of dopamine in synapse. Long-term stimulation can lead to brain shutting down some receptor; therefore same amount of drugs won"t cause same high. Drugs include alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, opioids (heroin/morphine), stimulants (cocaine), hallucinogens (lsd), inhalants, and caffeine.