2A. Drugs and the Brain’s Reward Circuits

Question 1

drugs that influence subjective experience and behavior by acting on the nervous system

Answer 1

psychoactive drugs

Question 2

releases dopamine into target regions in response to rewarding stimuli, causing a sense of pleasure and reinforcing associated behavior

Answer 2

ventral tegmental area (VTA)

Question 3

evaluates the motivational value of stimuli by integrating information from different brain regions

Answer 3

nucleus accumbens

Question 4

regulates impulses, decision-making, and modulates the activity of the VTA and nucleus accumbens

Answer 4

prefrontal cortex

Question 5

enables communication between the various components of the reward circuit

Answer 5

medial forebrain bundle

Question 6

drugs of abuse hijack the normal functioning of the reward circuit by causing an excessive release of ___, leading to neuroadaptations and addictive behaviors

Answer 6

dopamine

Question 7

preferred route of administration; dissolve in the fluids of the stomach; takes place sooner; easy and safer

Answer 7

oral ingestion

Question 8

preferred by drug-addict persons; strong, fast and predictable effect; bloodstream delivers the drug directly to the brain

Answer 8

injection

Question 9

absorbed into the bloodstream through the rich network of capillaries in the lungs

Answer 9

inhalation

Question 10

administered through the mucous membranes of the nose, mouth and rectum.

Answer 10

absorption through mucous membranes

Question 11

drugs enters bloodstream - carried to the blood vessels of the ___

Answer 11

CNS

Question 12

makes it difficult for potentially dangerous bloodborne-chemicals to pass into the extracellular space across CNS neurons and glia

Answer 12

blood-brain barrier

Question 13

eliminates a drug’s ability to pass through lipid membranes of cells so that i can no longer penetrate the blood-brain barrier

Answer 13

drug metabolism

Question 14

state of decreased sensitivity to a drug that develops as a result of exposure to it; less effect than it had before

Answer 14

tolerance

Question 15

one drug can produce tolerance to other drugs that act by the same mechanism

Answer 15

cross tolerance

Question 16

increasing sensitivity to a drug

Answer 16

drug sensitization

Question 17

drug tolerance that results from changes that reduce the amount of the drug getting to its sites of action

Answer 17

metabolic tolerance

Question 18

drug tolerance that results from changes that reduce the reactivity of the sites of action to the drug

Answer 18

functional tolerance

Question 19

after significant amounts of a drug have been in the body for a period of time (e.g., several days), its sudden elimination can trigger an adverse physiological reaction

Answer 19

withdrawal syndrome

Question 20

individuals who suffer withdrawal reactions when they stop taking a drug and said to be physically dependent on that drug

Answer 20

physically dependent

Question 21

habitual drug use despite its adverse effects on health and social life and despite their repeated efforts to stop using it

Answer 21

drug adddiction

Question 22

type of addiction that involves psychotropic drugs

Answer 22

substance addiction

Question 23

type of addiction
that involves pathological gambling, video games, internet addiction (compulsive cybersex, excessive online shopping)

Answer 23

behavioral aaddiction

Question 23

excessive involvement in work

Answer 23

workaholism

Question 24

conditional stimuli that repeatedly predict the effects of a drug come to elicit greater and greater conditioned compensatory responses

Answer 24

conditioned compensatory responses

Question 25

external, public stimuli such as the drug-administration environment as the conditional stimuli

Answer 25

exteroceptive stimuli

Question 26

internal, private stimuli (ex. thinking about a drug can evoke conditioned compensatory responses)

Answer 26

interoceptive stimuli

Question 27

five commonly used drugs

Answer 27

- nicotine - alcohol - marijuana - cocaine and other stimulants - opioids (heroin and morphine)

Question 28

three stages in the development of an addiction

Answer 28

1. initial drug taking 2. habitual drug taking 3. drug craving and repeated relapse

Question 29

factors for addiction

Answer 29

- genetic vulnerabilities - epigenetic vulnerabilities