ESS 3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Psychoactive Drug, Dopaminergic Pathways, Telecommunication Circuit
Document Summary
Where do most craving mechanisms reside? a) old brain. Old brain acts 4-5x faster than new brain. Reward/reinforcement pathway = mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway (esp. nucleus accumbens) Nucleus accumbens is the go or more switch, 1. Tells us we are doing things necessary for survival and 2. Tells us to remember what we did to survive and 3. Tells us to do more again and again until satisfied, in order to survive. Left orbital prefrontal cortex- control circuit or stop switch (new brain), Often disabled by chronic drug use, renders rational thought useless and leads to no stop messages. This is because of damage to the fasciculus retroflexus (communication circuit b/w old and new brain) 3 keys to addiction: 1. overactive go in old brain, 2. impaired stop circuit in new brain: lack of communication b/w the two. Leads to non-drug use being less pleasurable and develops dependence on a substance or compulsive behavior to release dopamine in brain.
