Category: Addiction

Weekly Round Up

What can neuroscience teach us about making predictions?

Every day we make thousands of tiny predictions — when the bus will arrive, who is knocking on the door, whether the dropped glass will break. Now, in one of the first studies of its kind, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are beginning to unravel the process by which the brain makes these everyday prognostications.

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery but how do our brains decide when and who we should copy? Researchers from The University of Nottingham have found that the key may lie in an unspoken invitation communicated through eye contact.

Cognitive training can enhance working memory and the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine, according to a study published recently in the journal Science.

The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) just released this new definition of addiction after a four-year process involving more than 80 experts: “Addiction is a chronic brain disorder and not simply a behavior problem involving alcohol, drugs, gambling or sex, experts contend in a new definition of addiction, one that is not solely related to problematic substance abuse.”

Finally, IBM has been shipping computers for more than 65 years, and it is finally on the verge of creating a true electronic brain. It has just announced that along with four universities and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), it has created the basic design of an experimental computer chip that emulates the way the brain processes information.

Weekly Round-Up

Your brain is more responsive to your friends than to strangers

Researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center have described for the first time how the brain’s memory center repairs itself following severe trauma – a process that may explain why it is harder to bounce back after multiple head injuries.

People with autism use their brains differently from other people, which may explain why some have extraordinary abilities to remember and draw objects in detail, according to new research from the University of Montreal.

Five more genes which increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease have been identified, according to research published in Nature Genetics. This takes the number of identified genes linked to Alzheimer’s to 10 – the new genes affect three bodily processes and could become targets for treatment. If the effects of all 10 could be eliminated the risk of developing the disease would be cut by 60%, although new treatments could be 15 years away.

The sudden understanding or grasp of a concept is often described as an “Aha” moment and now researchers from New York University are using a functional MRI (fMRI) scanner to study how these moments of insight are captured and stored in our brain.

Mark Changizi is asking the question how do we have reading areas for a brain that didn’t evolve to read?

In order to develop new medications for alcoholism, researchers need to understand how alcohol acts on the brain’s reward system. A previously unknown mechanism has been shown to block the rewarding effects of alcohol on the brain, reveals a thesis from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Researchers from the University of Valencia (UV)  investigating the brain structures involved with empathy have concluded that the brain circuits responsible are in part the same as those involved with violence.

And finally…your brain is more responsive to your friends than to strangers, even if those strangers have more in common with you, says a new study. Researchers looked at the brain areas associated with social information. The results of the study show that social connections override similar interests.

What can we learn from Gerry Ryan’s death?

Gerry Ryan

I was saddened this week to read of the coroner’s verdict on the death of the radio DJ and TV personality Gerry Ryan (53). I have vivid memories of listening to Gerry late into the night in the mid 1980’s as I worked away in the Pharmacology laboratory in University College Galway, Ireland – on my experiments for my PhD degree on possible mechanisms of action of antidepressant drugs.

It was the middle of a devastating recession with thousands of young people including myself preparing to emigrate and very unsure of what fate awaited us. I vividly recall a riveting moment when alone in the lab one evening I was literally stuck to the floor as the then popular Terence Trent Darby’s song ‘Sign you name across my heart’ came on air and in the background was Gerry’s weary yet empathetic voice saying…’I wish you well my friends as you sign your name on your passports, on your visas, on you dole cards.’  It must be over 25 years ago but that memory has always remained with me. The power of memory! But that’s for another blog post.

Cocaine and Alcohol – a potentially lethal mix

Over the past two decades I have given talks in schools and colleges on how addictive drugs including cocaine affect the brain and it still amazes me how little the general public understand  how these potentially lethal drugs work.

The post mortem showed the Gerry had died from an abnormal heart rhythm which was likely to have been triggered by cocaine. Gerry also had “cocaethylene” in his system, which is produced when cocaine and alcohol are mixed.

Both cocaine and alcohol have very different modes of action on the brain. Cocaine is a stimulant which elevates mood, increases heart rate and puts your brain into a vigilant attentive state. Alcohol is what’s called a narcotic- a nervous system depressant – which puts you to sleep. What both drugs have in common however is that both are highly addictive.   Not only that but some studies show that when alcohol is taken before (the cocaine), it causes a greater buzz and that an alcohol and cocaine combination is 25pc more potent. To make matter worse at high enough doses both alcohol and cocaine are anesthetics – drugs that switch off important nervous functions – which does not help either.

More harmful drugs found in the cocktail

Other drugs also found in Gerry’s body were Levamisole, a veterinary medicine until recently used to treat parasitic worm infections in humans and commonly used as a cutting agent in cocaine where it adds bulk and weight to powdered cocaine (whereas other adulterants will produce smaller “rocks” of cocaine) and makes the drug appear more pure.

Also found was a small quantity was codeine – a powerful pain killer from the opiate family of morphine-like drugs –  and sold over-the-counter as Nurofen Plus or Solpadine.  Gerry probably took this because he was in some discomfort.

It is clear from reading newspaper reports that Gerry Ryan’s friends and loved ones are deeply shocked by the revelations of the inquest, insisting they had no idea about Ryan’s cocaine use. It is particularly sad that our memories of this popular broadcaster may be tarnished by the revelation. Many of his media friends have urged people not to let this be the case, and to remember Gerry for his talent and not the sordid nature of his death.

Today FM broadcaster Ian Dempsey has told the Herald newspaper that he would “It’s a pity that something like this has to overshadow what he achieved during his life. I don’t think it’s of any benefit to anyone.”

While I agree to an extent with Dempsey, I do think that Gerry’s death might be of some benefit if it opens up a debate on how we as a society deal with stress. We have heard that Gerry was under a great deal of stress in the days and weeks leading up to his death, and we are led to surmise that alcohol and drug taking was his way of coping. In this he is not alone. As the world economy continues on its downward slide, and unemployment and financial worries beset us, are we going to turn more and more to these quick fixes to handle our dis-stress?

Probably the most important lesson to be taken from Gerry’s death is the realization that the stresses of life and how we manage them IS the difference between life and death. I look forward to developing this theme in greater detail including drug-free tips on how the avoid worry and stress in future posts, but in the meantime, my deepest sympathy go to Gerry’s loved ones at this difficult time.