Drugs Brain And Behavior Summary

480 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: How do drugs affect the brain essay

Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction The article, Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction, published by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, discusses the lasting effects drug use has on the human brain. According to the article the brain is the most complex organ in the human body. The brain regulates your body basic functions; enables you to interpret and respond to everything you experience. The brain also shapes your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. The brain consists of many individual parts, that are responsible for specific functions, but untimely these parts work together as a team to ensure the brain is functioning properly. Drugs can alter important brain areas that are essential for life sustaining functions and can ultimately lead to drug addiction and erodes a person’s ability to make sound decisions. …show more content…

The brain is a communication center consisting of billions of neurons. We also learned that neurons are specialized cells in the nervous system, which receives and sends messages within that system. The article explains that drugs are able to affect the brain by tapping into its communication system and interfering with the way neurons normally send, receive, and process information. For example drugs such as marijuana and heroin are able to activate neurons because they have a chemical structure that mimics that of a natural neurotransmitter a chemical found in the synaptic vesicles that, when released has an effect on the next cell. This fools the receptors and allows the drug to attach onto and activate the neurons. These drugs might mimic the brain’s own chemicals; however they don’t activate neurons in the same way as a neurotransmitter, which leads to abnormal messages being transmitted through the

Show More
Related

  • Short And Long Term Effects Of Marijuana Upon The Brain

    2046 Words  | 5 Pages

    Hallucinogens prevent the brain from receiving all of these messages in order. All of the information that we receive is through millions of transactions of neurons, like a computer, marijuana alters these transactions. After smoking, or consuming marijuana, it is distributed in the brain. The concentration of marijuana in the brain may be governed by an active transport process in the choroid plexus network of blood vessels in the brain which regulates intraventricular pressure by absorption and secretion of cerebro spinal fluid. One scientific experiment gave an example of how the distribution of marijuana in the central nervous system could affect man.

    Read More

  • Introduction to Addictions and Substance Use Disorders

    648 Words  | 2 Pages

    Koob, G. F. (2011, Winter -). Neurobiology of Addiction. Retrieved from Focus: The Journal of Lifelong Learning in Psychiatry: http://focus.psychiatryonline.org/data/Journals/FOCUS/4266/foc00111000055.pdf

    Read More

  • Methamphetamine and Brain Function

    1370 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to the Centers for Disease Control, methamphetamine, or meth as it is often referred to, is considered the fastest-growing illicit drug in the United States. The consequences of usage are detrimental to families and employers, not to mention the increasing law enforcement burden of having to find and disband labs making it illegally. (CDC, 2005) Aside from the far-reaching implications of methamphetamine use on these entities, this paper explores the effect methamphetamine has on the structure and function of the human brain.

    Read More

  • Cocaine in the Brain

    1216 Words  | 3 Pages

    "Cocaine delivers an intensity of pleasure - and despair - beyond the bounds of normal human experience."

    Read More

  • Drug Addiction: A Brain Disease?

    746 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are many biological factors that are involved with the addicted brain. "The addicted brain is distinctly different from the nonaddicted brain, as manifested by changes in brain metabolic activity, receptor availability, gene expression, and responsiveness to environmental cues." (2) In the brain, there are many changes that take place when drugs enter a person's blood stream. The pathway in the brain that the drugs take is first to the ventral tegmentum to the nucleus accumbens, and the drugs also go to the limbic system and the orbitofrontal cortex, which is called the mesolimbic reward system. The activation of this reward system seems to be the common element in what hooks drug users on drugs (2).

    Read More

  • Substance Abuse: A Nationwide Epidemic

    2210 Words  | 5 Pages

    The most commonly abused substances are Nicotine, Inhalants, Alcohol, Cocaine, Amphetamines, Prescription medications, Heroin, Ecstasy and Marijuana. 1a(National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2011) Initially, a person may find themselves using substances voluntarily and with confidence that they will be able to dictate their personal use. However, over the period of time that drug use is repeated, changes are taking place throughout the brain, whether it is functionally or structurally. Drugs contain chemicals that enter the communication system of the brain and disturb the way in which nerve cells would typically send, receive, and process information. The chemicals within these drugs will cause a disruption to the communication system by either imitating the brain’s natural chemical messengers or by over-stimulating the brains “reward system” by sending mass amounts of dopamine. As an individual prolongs his or her use of these substances, they may develop an addiction.

    Read More

  • Hallucinogens

    1484 Words  | 3 Pages

    Chemical messengers transmit information from nerve cells to nerve cells in the body and the brain. Your nerve cells are called neurons, and their chemical messengers are called neurotransmitters. Chemicals like hallucinogens can disrupt this communication system, and the results are changes in the way you sense the world around you. There's still a lot that scientists don't know about the effects of hallucinogens on the brain, though. Some hallucinogens occur naturally in trees, vines, seeds, fungi and leaves.

    Read More

  • Neil Levy's Article: Addiction Is A Brain Disease?

    1019 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to Leshner, drug addiction is a chronic brain disease that is expressed in the form of compulsive behaviors (Leshner, 2001). He believes that drug addiction is influence by both biological, and behavioral factors, and to solve this addiction problem we need to focus on these same factors. On the other hand, Neil Levy argues that addiction is not a brain disease rather it is a behavioral disorder embedded in social context (Levy, 2013). I believe, drug addiction is a recurring brain disease that can be healed when we alter and eliminate all the factors that are reinforcing drug addiction.

    Read More

  • Parietal Lobe

    934 Words  | 2 Pages

    Although they are different in shape and size, some of them less than a millimeter long and other that runs the whole length of a human leg. No matter how big it is they all contain three basic parts, the Soma contains the nucleus, DNA, mitochondria and ribosomes, the Dendrites is the receiver, receives messages from other neurons, and the Axon is the sender it sends messages through to other neurons, glands or muscles. The contact between the neurons known as synapses, they are extremely small gaps. There are over a hundred-different type of neurotransmitters. When somebody takes drug, it affects the neurotransmitters to burst out through during the synaptic gap and blocks it from coming back as they should.

    Read More

  • The Prescription Drug Abuse Crisis

    1696 Words  | 4 Pages

    "Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction." Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction. Feb. 2007: 1-30. SIRS Government Reporter. Web. 20 Jan. 2014.

    Read More

  • Effects Of Drugs On The Brain

    1083 Words  | 3 Pages

    Repeated drug use over time changes the brain structure, and functions in long-lasting and fundamental ways. For example, in marijuana or heroin, they have similar structure to the chemical messengers called neurotransmitters (naturally produce by the brain). So because of this similarity the drugs are able to fool the brain receptors and active nerve cells to send abnormal messages.

    Read More

  • Effects of Psychoactive Drugs

    1211 Words  | 3 Pages

    Development is a never ending cycle in life. Each person begins to develop from conception until passing away. Now, while most people think that development starts after birth that is incorrect. Development starts as soon as the baby is conceived. Everything that a woman carrying a baby does or takes place in will translate into the baby. The baby shares a blood flow with the mother. Drugs, even legal drugs, will go into the mother’s blood stream which will then go into the baby’s blood stream. The “maternal blood flows through the uterine arteries to the spaces housing the placenta, and it returns through the uterine vein to the maternal circulation” (Santrock, 2012, p. 80). This means that anything that enters into the blood stream will also affect the baby. Each type of drug is under a certain category. Psychoactive drugs are drugs that are constantly being studier. According to Santrock (2012), psychoactive drugs are drugs that act on the nervous system to alter states of consciousness, modify perception, and change moods. (p.83). They come in three categories: stimulants, depressants, and hallucinogens. Stimulants include caffeine, cocaine, methamphetamine and nicotine. Some people say that pregnant woman do not know what taking these into their system is doing to their baby. Stimulants are becoming more popular and there effects need to be studied and known. Each stimulant affects the baby in short-term and long-term.

    Read More

  • Addiction in Adolescents

    992 Words  | 2 Pages

    Leshner, A. (2011) Addiction Is a Brain Disease, and it Matters. Frontiers in Neuroscience: The Science of Substance Abuse.

    Read More

  • Neuroscience And Addiction Essay

    1871 Words  | 4 Pages

    Neuroscience and addiction The human nervous system is involved in every aspect of humans functioning (Wright et al., 2008). Every thought and action by an individual is controlled by the nervous system, which is split into two parts (Wright et al., 2008). The first part of the nervous system is known as the central nervous system, which can be described as a part of the nervous system that is primarily made up of the brain and spinal cord (Wright et al., 2008). The other part of the nervous system is known as the peripheral nervous system, which is made up of neurons, nerves, and connects the body to the central nervous system (Wright et al., 2008).

    Read More

  • Say No To Drugs!

    423 Words  | 1 Pages

    Drugs are chemicals that change the way a person's body or mind works. Drugs are not good for health as they have many side effects and damage our brain, heart and other important organs. Drug is a depressant that slows down the functions of the central nervous system and makes us less aware of the events around us. I...

    Read More

More about Drugs Brain And Behavior Summary

Open Document