Posts tagged with ‘brain’
The brain is the center of the nervous system. It regulates and controls all bodily activities, receives and interprets sensory impulses, and transmits information to the muscles and body organs, and it controls consciousness, thought, memory, and emotion.
Wiping Memories to Treat Addiction
A professor and director of research at Cambridge University has completed research that could lead to a dramatic new method of addiction treatment: targeting and eliminating memories related to addiction.
Professor Barry Everitt, one of three winners of the 25th annual Neuronal Plasticity Prize of the Fondation Ipsen, recently revealed his research targeting the memory plasticity of rodents and its effect on their addictive substance use. Much of Everitt’s career as a behavioral neuroscientist has been directed toward understanding how learning and memory relate to addictive drug use. Full Story
Alcoholism Can Lead to Vision Loss, Study Finds
People affected by long-term alcoholism have clearly increased risks for developing various forms of nerve damage or neuropathy. When this damage appears in either of the optic nerves that link the eyes to the brain, experts in the field commonly refer to it as optic neuropathy. In a pilot study published in June 2014 in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, a team of French researchers sought to determine how often optic neuropathy appears in people with alcoholism. These researchers concluded the condition appears in a relatively small but significant number of individuals.
Cocaine Use Shown to Speed Brain Aging
Brain aging is a general term used to describe structural, chemical and psychological changes that commonly occur in the brains of older individuals. While this process doesn’t affect everyone in the same way, aging in the brain is associated with a number of significant health problems, including Alzheimer’s disease and depression. Current evidence indicates that people who habitually abuse cocaine develop changes in their brains that point toward the onset of premature brain aging. In particular, habitual cocaine abuse can destroy grey matter, the material that forms the core of the brain’s communications network. Full Story
Cocaine Use Shown to Speed Brain Aging
Brain aging is a general term used to describe structural, chemical and psychological changes that commonly occur in the brains of older individuals. While this process doesn’t affect everyone in the same way, aging in the brain is associated with a number of significant health problems, including Alzheimer’s disease and depression. Current evidence indicates that people who habitually abuse cocaine develop changes in their brains that point toward the onset of premature brain aging. In particular, habitual cocaine abuse can destroy grey matter, the material that forms the core of the brain’s communications network. Full Story
Drug Abuse Weakens the Ability to Recognize Emotion in Facial Expressions
From very early ages children can recognize the nuances of facial expressions. Infants and toddlers quickly learn to recognize happiness, sadness, or anger in their guardian’s face. As adults, we can tune in to body language and recognize the complex feelings behind each of these expressions. But some adults have lost this natural ability to recognize emotions in the human face. Full Story
Excessive Drinking Harms Function of Serotonin in the Brain
A recent Swedish study shows that serotonin, a vital brain neurotransmitter, has a role in developing and curing depression and chronic anxiety. While the neurotransmitter is empowered to regulate impulses and human abilities to sleep or to stay awake, it has been found that excessive drinking harms the function of serotonin in the brain in a short amount of time. Full Story
Study Explores Why People Respond Differently to Environmental Drug Cues
A new study has found that differences in people’s responses to environmental cues can change chemical responses in the brain. This finding could help researchers develop new treatments for substance abuse, compulsive gambling, sexual addiction, and other compulsive behaviors.
Study Examines Alcohol Use and Cognitive Decline in the Elderly
Studies of alcohol use and cognition among the elderly are rare and have mixed results, but a study of drinking among the elderly in Brazil has found that heavy alcohol use is associated with more memory and cognitive problems than mild-to-moderate alcohol use, especially among women. Results will be published in the April 2010 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.
Cocaine Users Risk Permanent Damage in Brain
Cocaine addiction can be very difficult to overcome as individuals develop this addiction as a result of the drugs ability to generate a feeling of euphoria. Not only can such an addiction alter a person’s life, it can also create severe biological and behavioral problems.
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The Addiction Primer: Everything You Need to Know to Get Help for a Loved One
A very inexpensive yet indispensable guide for anyone struggling with a loved one's addiction. Chapters on intervention, what to expect from rehab, and information on how addiction impacts the family.
