ScienceDaily: Addiction Breakthrough May Lead To New Treatments
Dr Jeff Dalley and colleagues, at the Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, may have resolved this debate by demonstrating that changes in a neurotransmitter receptor in a particular part of the brain actually pre-dates drug use. Using positron emission tomography (a PET scan), they discovered that rats that were behaviourally impulsive, but which had not been exposed to drugs, had significantly less brain dopamine receptors than their more restrained counterparts. Additionally, these same impulsive rats were found to be considerably more likely to self-administer cocaine intravenously, thus linking impulsive behaviour with drug addiction vulnerability.
Dr Jeff Dalley and colleagues, at the Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, may have resolved this debate by demonstrating that changes in a neurotransmitter receptor in a particular part of the brain actually pre-dates drug use. Using positron emission tomography (a PET scan), they discovered that rats that were behaviourally impulsive, but which had not been exposed to drugs, had significantly less brain dopamine receptors than their more restrained counterparts. Additionally, these same impulsive rats were found to be considerably more likely to self-administer cocaine intravenously, thus linking impulsive behaviour with drug addiction vulnerability.
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