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Referencechaptermore in depth than required http://droualb.faculty.mjc.edu/Course%20Materials/Physiology%20101/Chapter%20Notes/Fall%202011/chapter_10%20Fall%202011.htm |
How do drugs effect the synapses in the brain?
Drag a drugged out mouse to find out: Learn Genetics site has very good set of animations that look at various drugs and what they do to the synapses. http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/addiction/drugs/mouse.html Alcohol and Marijuana act on different parts of the brain. Click on the 3D Brain interactive below to get more informationhttp://www.theantidrug.com/drug-information/drug-effects-on-the-brain/default.aspx
How marijuana impairs memory
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/neurophilosophy/2012/mar/02/how-marijuana-impairs-memory Driving while stoned doubles the risk of fatal crash http://healthland.time.com/2012/02/10/stoned-driving-nearly-doubles-the-risk-of-a-fatal-crash/?iid=hl-article-editpicks
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Excellent reference site that explains drugs impact on the brain,many different language options as well.
http://www.jellinek.nl/brain/index.html |
Faces of Meth- a picture speaks a 1000 wordsRunner's HIgh- how did it evolve? From the New York TImes, an article explaining just that.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/25/the-evolution-of-the-runners-high/?ref=healt |
Applications of medical THCThis is a clip from The Botany of Desire that explains the potential for applying a known side effect of marijuana, memory loss, in the treatment of a debilitating condition, PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder. Michael Pollan, the author of the book by the same name, is a relatively biased presenter/narrator but listen to the scientists as they explain the mechanism and the research that went into the discovery of the receptors in the brain that THC can act on.
Type Neurotransmitter Postsynaptic Effect
Amino Acids Biogenic Amines Acetylcholine* Excitatory Noradrenaline* Excitatory GABA* Inhibitory Serotonin* Excitatory Glycine Inhibitory Histamine Excitatory Glutamate* Excitatory Aspartate Excitatory Dopamine* Excitatory /Inhibatory You do not need to recognize the molecular structure of each of these NTs Those marked with a star can be effected by psychoactive drugs. You should create a chart in your notebook/note cards of the psychoactive drugs and their direct mode of action ( what happens first) and what will ultimately happen to the post synaptic neurons- does it get inhibited or excited? http://www.brainexplorer.org/neurological_control/Neurological_Neurotransmitters.shtml |
Discuss the causes of addiction, including genetic predisposition, social factors and dopamine secretion.
The Learn Genetics site, linked about for Mouse Party, has a pretty thorough run through on the genetic and social factors of addiction. Read more below for more.
The Learn Genetics site, linked about for Mouse Party, has a pretty thorough run through on the genetic and social factors of addiction. Read more below for more.
Brains may be wired for addiction
The following linked article from the BBC reports on an sibling study of the brain which examines exactly this, brains of addict and non addict siblings are very similar. This points to other characteristics that may help prevent addiction occurring and help those who are struggling.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16854593 Countering Pavlovian conditioning can help drug addicts kick their addiction. Article in The Guardian, science section, outlines how using therapy can help addicts handling the cravings that make keeping clean and off drugs so difficult to do.Manipulating memory to treat addictionA behavioural procedure that alters memory effectively prevents the cravings of heroin addicts http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/neurophilosophy/2012/apr/12/1
Could being devoted to exercise make it harder for you to break an addiction? Emily Orofino reports on a NYTimes article on the Refinery 29 site Apr 13, 2012 4.
Could being devoted to exercise make it harder for you to break an addiction? Researchers think so. A new study at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign injected mice with a chemical that tracks newly created brain cells and then divided them into two groups — sedentary and those that used running wheels. After thirty days, the mice were introduced to cocaine. All mice liked the drugs, but the researchers discovered that once exposing the sedentary mice to running wheels, it was easier for the rodents to kick their cocaine habit. In fact, they soon preferred running to the drugs. However, the active mice were not as lucky: they never lost their taste for cocaine. Why? Researchers believe that exercise strongly affects learning. The mice that had been running from the start of the study had twice as many brain cells as the sedentary mice – and in this case, those brain cells had been used to form a cocaine addiction. “Fundamentally, the results are encouraging,” says Justin S. Rhodes, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois and an author of the study. “Exercise improves associative learning.” The mice that started exercising after being introduced to cocaine learned to kick their habit with their new cells. This may be because of multiple studies that have suggested that exercise stimulates reward centers in the brain that can fill in for drug cravings. “It’s a no-brainer,” says Dr. Rhodes. “Exercise is good for you in almost every way.” (NYTimes) |
Exercise and the Dopamine Reward Pathway for Food- not as clear cut as it would seem.
Research into the relationship between exercise and the brain, specifically the dopamine reward pathway, has brought out some very interesting results. Read the linked article to read more:http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/does-exercise-make-you-overeat/ Stress and the Brain
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/nov/19/brain-stress-research-reshape?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487 |
ATTENTION PROBLEMS RELATED TO SLEEP. ADD/ADHD and sleep:http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/attention-problems-may-be-sleep-related/
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Blood Alcohol Calculator http://bloodalcoholcalculator.org/ |