THE ADDICTIVE BRAIN

SC 212 JANUARY 31, 2017

JOHN BUSH

BEHAVIORAL ADDICTIONS

• Definition: Persistent continuation of a problem behavior despite significant negative consequences

• Any activity that hyperstimulates the brain reward circuit may lead to addiction

• Candidate behavioral addictions – Problem gambling --Food bingeing (Obesity) – Video gaming --Internet gaming – Aerobic physical exercise --Working – Shopping --Viewing pornography – Cell phone abuse --On-line sexting – Sexual intercourse

DVD LECTURE ELEVEN

THE GAMBLER’S BRAIN

DVD LECTURE TWELVE

JUNK FOOD, PORN, VIDEO GAMES – ADDICTIONS?

• BREAK

GAMBLING: A SUMMARY

• Gambling: putting something of value at risk in the expectation of gaining greater value

• Pathological gambling and drug addiction share a number of similarities – fMRI evidence for enhanced response of pathological

gamblers to gambling cues – Dopamine is involved: dopamine agonists increase

likelihood of pathological gambling – Control by prefrontal cortex is reduced among

pathological gamblers – Pathological gambling is more than 62% heritable

COMPONENTS OF THE REWARD SYSTEM

NEUROTRANSMITTERS

Dopamine

Glutamate

GABA

Serotonin

Acetylcholine

Δ FosB: SIGN OF ADDICTION

• Formation of ΔFosB leads to long term changes in the brain

• The more prolonged and intense the exposure to a problem behavior the greater the concentration of ΔFosB in the brain

• ΔFosB concentration decreases relatively slowly with time

• ΔFosB can be detected in human addicts in a post mortem examination

EVIDENCE OF BEHAVIORAL ADDICTION

• Observation of behavior patterns • Response to pharmaceutical interventions • Detection of ΔFosB • Functional MRI • Positron emission tomography • Addiction transfer

CANDIDATE BEHAVIORAL ADDICTIONS

• Problem gambling • Video gaming • Internet gaming • Cell phone abuse • Aerobic physical exercise * • Compulsive working • Food bingeing (Obesity)* • Compulsive shopping • Hypersexuality* • Viewing pornography

CAN OTHER NATURAL PLEASURES HYPERSTIMULATE THE REWARD CIRCUIT?

• Aesthetic stimuli • Social stimuli • Religious stimuli

RELIGIOUS JOY

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS • Addictive Behavior: compulsive continuation

of a behavior despite truly negative consequences

• Some people are genetically more susceptible to addiction than others

• There is literally something physically and chemically different in the brains of addicts