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Physiology Of Drug Addiction :

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Rilee White

Physiology of Drug Addiction

1.15) B

16) Drug users need to take increasing amounts of the drug in order to get the same high because when so much dopamine is produced, the brain tries to reduce the drug’s effect by switching off some of the dopamine receptors, which is called “down-regulation”. As these receptors shut down, larger amounts of the drug are required to produce a high.

17) This causes feelings of pleasure because dopamine is involved in conveying the sense of pleasure to the brain. When dopamine levels increase in the synaptic cleft, there is more than enough available. This causes almost all of the brain 's dopamine receptors to be stimulated simultaneously.

18) If a person were born…show more content…
The participant with the outlier result could only remember about four words.

(d) the outlier on the top right shows that the participant recalled more words than predicted, as the trend shows that most others with a dopamine receptor availability would not be able to remember fourteen words, as the line of best fit travels above the data point.

2.(a) alcohol

(b) marijuana

(c) methamphetamine

3. (a) One in every four high school students engage in binge drinking every month.

(b) White matter, which is responsible for decision making, doesn’t reach it’s full density until age 25 or 30. The lack of better decision making accounts for some people beginning to drink.

(c) The hippocampus is responsible for memory, the amygdala is responsible for emotions (especially fear), and the nucleus accumbens is involved in feeling pleasure. Some experts think that drinking alcohol at a young age will cause there to be less gray matter in the hippocampus and for the person to have a smaller amygdala. The studies show that they will also do worse with tests of memory, attention, and spatial skills. Also, the nucleus accumbens, which experiences a significant drop in dopamine during adolescence, adolescents may
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