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Related Experiment Videos

Human brain imaging and substance abuse.

Anne Lingford-Hughes1

  • 1Academic Unit of Psychiatry, University of Bristol, Bristol BS6 6JL, UK. anne.lingford-hughes@bristol.ac.uk

Current Opinion in Pharmacology
|January 22, 2005
PubMed
Summary

Functional neuroimaging reveals how substance misuse affects the brain, showing common dopamine changes and frontal cortex activation. It also highlights specific drug impacts on neurotransmitter systems.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Pharmacology
  • Neuroimaging

Background:

  • Functional neuroimaging has significantly advanced understanding of substance misuse neuropharmacology.
  • Techniques like fMRI, PET, and SPECT measure brain activity and neurochemical changes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review the common and specific neurobiological effects of substance misuse.
  • To highlight the utility of functional neuroimaging in studying addiction.

Main Methods:

  • Review of studies utilizing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
  • Analysis of data from positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission tomography (SPECT).

Main Results:

  • Common effects include acute dopamine release followed by hypofunction, and frontal cortex activation upon cue exposure.
  • Specific effects observed: ecstasy-induced decrease in serotonergic transporters, and opiate receptor occupancy by methadone/buprenorphine in addicts.

Conclusions:

  • Functional neuroimaging techniques provide crucial insights into the neuropharmacology of substance misuse.
  • These methods reveal both shared and distinct brain alterations across different substances of abuse.

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