All this extra brain power serves to fuel addiction

Aug 26, 2013 20:36 GMT  ·  By

Scientists in the US have recently discovered that cocaine boosts the brain's ability to acquire new information and make decisions.

Said drug appears to up the effectiveness of circuits in the frontal cortex, which is the part of the brain in charge of controlling planning and decision-making. Hence the fact that it is sometimes referred to as the brain's “steering wheel.”

Experiments carried out on mice have shown that rodents exposed to this drug didn't take long to start growing new connections in their frontal cortex.

These anatomical changes were accompanied by behavioral ones, EurekAlert details.

As the researchers explain, the animals started displaying a keen interest towards searching for and placing themselves in cocaine-related environments.

Thus, when given the chance to choose between two enclosures, they showed a clear preference for the one where they had been administered a cocaine shot.

The mice picked the cocaine-related room despite the fact that, previous to their having been given the drug, they showed more interest towards other enclosures.

These first preferences were based on what they looked and smelled like.

In light of these results, scientists theorize that all the extra brain power that the mice got as a result of their having been exposed to cocaine went into trying to get a new fix.

“It's been observed that long-term drug users show decreased function in the frontal cortex in connection with mundane cues or tasks, and increased function in response to drug-related activity or information,” researcher Linda Wilbrecht commented on these findings.

“In all living brains there is a baseline level of creation of new spines in response to, or in anticipation of, day-to-day learning. By enhancing this growth, cocaine might be a super-learning stimulus that reinforces learning about the cocaine experience,” she added.

The researchers hope that the outcome of this investigation will one day help roll out better treatment options for cocaine addicts who wish to kick the habit “by helping us identify what is going awry in the frontal cortexes of drug-addicted humans, and by explaining how drug-related cues come to dominate the brain's decision-making processes.”