Increased Brain Activity Predicts Future Substance Abuse
Can brain activities predict who are at risk of substance abuse later in life? This is what scientists from Oregon Research Institute (ORI) tried to find out in their latest research. Interestingly, they found that increased activities in a specific region in the brain may actually tell.
In the current study, the researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI to test whether the individual differences in the brain reward centre predicted the onset of obesity and drug abuse in 162 healthy individuals. Body fat and history of substance use was assessed at the time of the fMRI scanning and one year later.
The researchers examined how the rate of activities in the brain reward centre, particularly in response to food and drugs affected the tendency of the participants to obesity and substance abuse. They used monetary reward as a general trigger to assess the subjects’ reward sensitivity.
Findings reveal that greater activation in the striatum during the receipt of monetary reward predicted future substance use after one year. This is called the reward surfeit model. According to Dr Eric Stice, senior scientist at ORI, numerous studies have suggested that reduced response activities in the brain are a vulnerability factor in substance use, but this theory was based on cross-sectional studies comparing abusing individuals to healthy controls. Dr Stice said no studies have tested this theory with prospective data yet.
Surprisingly, participants who had previous record of substance abuse showed less activity in the striatum. This is the first ever evidence that moderate substance use consequently leads to reduced activity in the reward region.
The report, which will appear in the May issue of Biological Psychiatry, indicates that the elevated response activities in the reward centre of the bran is linked to the increased risk of substance use later in life. Meanwhile, the same neural predictor has not been found to increase the risk of obesity.
Source of this article:
©Copyright 2013 by http://www.NaturalTherapyForAll.com Hypnotherapy Nottingham - All Rights Reserved.