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Addictions due to flaws in common brain pathway
By Suzanne Rostler
NEW YORK, May 24 (Reuters Health) - The floor of the New York Stock Exchange may not be much different than a den of opium when it comes to motivation, a recent study suggests.
According to researchers, the anticipation of winning money triggers the same pattern of activity in the brain that receiving cocaine triggers in addicts. The findings suggest that all addictions stem from defects in the same brain pathway and could pave the way to the development of new medications that treat addiction, Dr. Hans C. Breiter from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, told Reuters Health.
"Our hypothesis is that not just addiction but every single psychiatric illness is caused by flaws in circuitry, which is at the core of motivational behavior," Breiter said. "This is a very common fundamental circuitry that processes information about rewards and losses and is at the core of anything you do."
The next step, he said, is to learn exactly how drugs hijack this circuitry so that new treatments can be developed that target the specific changes that lead to addiction.
In their study, published in the journal Neuron, the researchers used functional MRI scans to map the brain responses of 12 men while they took part in a game of chance. In the game, an arrow on a spinning disk decided the fate of participants.
The investigators examined the activity of the neurons both when study participants were shown how much they could win and also when the arrow stopped on a particular monetary value and the men either won or lost money.
As the arrow whirred around the disk, the flow of blood in the men's brains was found to mimic blood flow in response to euphoria producing drugs such as cocaine. Activity in particular areas of the brain--the sublenticular extended amygdala, the nucleus accumbens and the hypothalamus--rose in tandem with expectations of wining money.
Further, blood flow in areas of the brain flush with dopamine receptors was found to be similar to blood flow in the brains of monkeys when they anticipated and then got a reward. Dopamine is a brain chemical involved in feelings of pleasure.
"These common patterns...are consistent with the view that dysfunction of neural mechanisms and psychological processes crucial to adaptive decision making and behavior may contribute to a broad range of impulse disorders such as drug abuse and compulsive gambling," the study concludes.
Copyright 2001 Reuters Limited.
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