2007-09-17
Continuing the video from Friday.
- The ability to shape your own prefrontal cortex, either through alcohol or ... how else can you increase the size of your own prefrontal cortex? (Superkuh might like to know this ...)
Watch Idiocracy.
--- But doesn't the average intelligence of the population decrease as you increase the size of the population anyway?? So you can't really say there's a startling decrease in intelligence.
Addictive chemicals are Trojan horses because the brain thinks they are like neurotransmitters-- "So addiction is not a choice." - Puckett. There's probably some "final cause" going on there.
Social aspects of drug addiction? Reminders of drug smells, crack pipes, does this construct a need/craving in the brain for those neurotransmitters that were associated? So does the brain want certain neurotransmitters / Trojan-neurotransmitters? The brain changes in a state of drug desire than when not- peaking inside the brain during 'desire'. How is the brain fundamentally altered to have cocaine cravings? One guy had his legs shot and wasn't able to move- and so he was using a muscle relaxer, called Vacophin, and it seemed to be overriding the cocaine cravings. "So, we offered him a PET scan, and the usual Hollywood cocaine video, and we were thinking we wouldn't see the hot spot reward spots, and sure enough, there are no 'hot sports' and for you, watching the nature video, there was not much of a different response than watching the cocaine video."
8/10 teens leaving rehab have a relapse of their addiction. Addictive chemicals hijack the brain and there is this focus on the life of obtaining drugs. What we can do is recruit other parts of your brain to deminish the other parts. "We attempt to recruit other soldiers, other parts of the brain, to help deminish those feelings."
"The Secret Life of the Brain" - Emotions.
Aggression