Sin
04-14-2013, 02:52 AM
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/347701
Stimulating one part of the brain with laser light, researchers can wipe away addictive behavior and also conversely turn the non-addicted into compulsive cocaine seekers.
Drug abuse is one of the prevailing social problems, and has proven difficult for scientists to tackle over the years. From behavioral therapies to lobotomy and substitute substances, the drug-abuse mechanism in the brain has yet to be conquered with significant success. Treatment for addiction to illicit drugs such as cocaine includes several processes like detoxification, medication, behavioral therapy, relapse prevention and all these take time.
Fortunately, a recent research has pointed to manipulation of neural circuitry as a potentially viable way of affecting and possibly treating the drug abuse tendency of certain individuals.
In their scientific report entitled "Rescuing cocaine-induced prefrontal cortex hypoactivity prevents compulsive cocaine seeking", published by Nature Magazine, Antonello Bonci, MD said that when they turn on a laser light in the prelimbic region of the prefrontal cortex, the compulsive cocaine-seeking behavior in rats are gone. Antonello Bonci, MD is a scientific director of the intramural research program at the NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), where the work was done.
Bonci is also an adjunct professor of neurology at UCSF and an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University.
"Here we use a rat model of compulsive drug seeking in which cocaine seeking persists in a subgroup of rats despite delivery of noxious foot shocks," the report says. Researchers inserted rhodopsins (light-sensitive proteins) into the neurons of the prefrontal cortex of rats. Then through implanted fiber optic cables they activated those neurons by using pulses of laser light.
The result was that the drug-seeking behavior in cocaine-addicted rats was turned off. This happened because the prefrontal cortex deals with impulse control and it is less active in addicted rats. Meanwhile, when they switched off the light to deactivate the neurons, the addicted behavior was switched on in non-addicted rats.
The new study demonstrates the central role the prefrontal cortex plays in compulsive cocaine addiction in rats. "It also suggests a new therapy that could be tested immediately in humans," said Billy Chen of NIDA, the lead author of the study. Any new human therapy would not be based on using lasers, but would most likely rely on electromagnetic stimulation outside the scalp, in particular a technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Clinical trials are now being designed to test whether this approach works, Chen added.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a procedure that uses magnetic fields to stimulate nerve cells in the brain to improve symptoms of depression. Transcranial magnetic stimulation may be tried when other depression treatments haven't worked. With TMS, a large electromagnetic coil is placed against your scalp near your forehead. The electromagnet used in TMS creates electric currents that stimulate nerve cells in the region of the brain involved in mood control and depression.
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/347701#ixzz2QP0cUrgi
There's hope for you yet Nebula!! (Just messin' :p)
Stimulating one part of the brain with laser light, researchers can wipe away addictive behavior and also conversely turn the non-addicted into compulsive cocaine seekers.
Drug abuse is one of the prevailing social problems, and has proven difficult for scientists to tackle over the years. From behavioral therapies to lobotomy and substitute substances, the drug-abuse mechanism in the brain has yet to be conquered with significant success. Treatment for addiction to illicit drugs such as cocaine includes several processes like detoxification, medication, behavioral therapy, relapse prevention and all these take time.
Fortunately, a recent research has pointed to manipulation of neural circuitry as a potentially viable way of affecting and possibly treating the drug abuse tendency of certain individuals.
In their scientific report entitled "Rescuing cocaine-induced prefrontal cortex hypoactivity prevents compulsive cocaine seeking", published by Nature Magazine, Antonello Bonci, MD said that when they turn on a laser light in the prelimbic region of the prefrontal cortex, the compulsive cocaine-seeking behavior in rats are gone. Antonello Bonci, MD is a scientific director of the intramural research program at the NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), where the work was done.
Bonci is also an adjunct professor of neurology at UCSF and an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University.
"Here we use a rat model of compulsive drug seeking in which cocaine seeking persists in a subgroup of rats despite delivery of noxious foot shocks," the report says. Researchers inserted rhodopsins (light-sensitive proteins) into the neurons of the prefrontal cortex of rats. Then through implanted fiber optic cables they activated those neurons by using pulses of laser light.
The result was that the drug-seeking behavior in cocaine-addicted rats was turned off. This happened because the prefrontal cortex deals with impulse control and it is less active in addicted rats. Meanwhile, when they switched off the light to deactivate the neurons, the addicted behavior was switched on in non-addicted rats.
The new study demonstrates the central role the prefrontal cortex plays in compulsive cocaine addiction in rats. "It also suggests a new therapy that could be tested immediately in humans," said Billy Chen of NIDA, the lead author of the study. Any new human therapy would not be based on using lasers, but would most likely rely on electromagnetic stimulation outside the scalp, in particular a technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Clinical trials are now being designed to test whether this approach works, Chen added.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a procedure that uses magnetic fields to stimulate nerve cells in the brain to improve symptoms of depression. Transcranial magnetic stimulation may be tried when other depression treatments haven't worked. With TMS, a large electromagnetic coil is placed against your scalp near your forehead. The electromagnet used in TMS creates electric currents that stimulate nerve cells in the region of the brain involved in mood control and depression.
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/347701#ixzz2QP0cUrgi
There's hope for you yet Nebula!! (Just messin' :p)