Neuroplasticity

Question 1

What is the coronal plane?

Answer 1

Splits into front and back

Question 2

What is the sagittal plane?

Answer 2

Splits into left and right

Question 3

What is the transverse plane?

Answer 3

Splits into top and bottom

Question 4

What is hedonic tone?

Answer 4

The trait underlying one’s characteristic ability to feel pleasure

Question 5

What does the reward circuit control?

Answer 5

Hedonic tone

Question 6

What is the main target of drugs of abuse?

Answer 6

The striatolimbic reward circuit

Question 7

What are the 3 pathways in the reward circuit?

Answer 7

1. Descending myelinated pathway from the anterior bed nuclei to the ventral tegmental area pathway (VTA)
2. Ascending dopaminergic ventral tegmental area to the nucleus accumbens pathway (NAc)
3. GABA/substance P/enkephalinergic nucleus accumbens to ventral pallidum pathway

Question 8

Which pathway in the reward circuit is glutamate driven?

Answer 8

1

Question 9

What do all addictive drugs do to dopamine levels?

Answer 9

Increase dopamine levels in the NAc

Question 10

How was the reward circuit evolved?

Answer 10

Evolved to reinforce survival behaviours

Question 11

What do addictive drugs do to the reward circuit?

Answer 11

Hijacks it

Question 12

Where is the NAc located?

Answer 12

In the basal forebrain striatum

Question 13

What is the NAc responsible for?

Answer 13

Pleasure center
Reward/reinforcement of drug-taking - translates emotional stimulus into behaviour

Question 14

Where does the NAc project to?

Answer 14

VTA
PFC
Amygdala
Hippocampus
Basal ganglia

Question 15

What interface does the NAc control?

Answer 15

The interface between limbic and motor systems

Question 16

Where is the VTA located?

Answer 16

In the midbrain

Question 17

What is the VTA responsible for?

Answer 17

Main driver of rewarding feelings
Involved in cognition, motivation, and locomotor activity

Question 18

Where is the PFC located?

Answer 18

In the frontal lobe

Question 19

What is the PFC responsible for?

Answer 19

Self-awareness, personality, executive function

Question 20

What pathway from the PFC relate to the expression of behaviours trained by chronic drug abuse?

Answer 20

PFC -> VTA + amygdala

Question 21

Where is the hippocampus located?

Answer 21

In the para-sagittal plane, caudal amygdala

Question 22

What is the hippocampus responsible for?

Answer 22

Memory formation, processing novel and contextual information

Question 23

What does the hippocampus contain that is suppressed by drugs of abuse?

Answer 23

Neuronal stem cells

Question 24

What pathway modulates plasticity and learning/memory?

Answer 24

VTA -> Hippocampus

Question 25

What is the amygdala responsible for?

Answer 25

Emotions, learning, memory, reward, attention, arousal, stress

Question 26

What is the amygdala key for?

Answer 26

Emotional reactivity - most disabling symptom in addicts

Question 27

What disrupts amygdala -> PFC connections?

Answer 27

Chronic drug abuse

Question 28

What does the basolateral amygdala permit?

Answer 28

Emotional regulation, decision making by medial PFC

Question 29

What is the caudate nucleus responsible for?

Answer 29

Voluntary movement, learning, memory, sleep, pain, social behaviour

Question 30

Where do drugs accumulate?

Answer 30

In the caudate nucleus, drugs bind to receptors here

Question 31

Where is the locus coeruleus located?

Answer 31

In the dorsal pons

Question 32

What is the locus coeruleus responsible for?

Answer 32

Regulates arousal, cognition, memory, sleep-wake, attention, emotion, stress

Question 33

What is the locus coeruleus particularly important for?

Answer 33

Stress responses LC-NE afferents are modulated by the K opioid receptor activation

Question 34

What part of the brain regulates withdrawal symptoms?

Answer 34

The locus coeruleus

Question 35

Where are the raphe nuclei located?

Answer 35

In the dorsal medulla oblongata

Question 36

What are the raphe nuclei responsible for?

Answer 36

Regulating mood, emotion, aggression, sleep, anxiety, memory, appetite, pain, and temperature

Question 37

What are nuclei and forebrain projections targets for?

Answer 37

Alcohol, opioids, MDMA

Question 38

What have RN->PFC projections been implicated in?

Answer 38

Neuropsychiatric disorders like OCD, ADHD, and schizophrenia

Question 39

What is drug-taking behaviour initially?

Answer 39

Reward-driven

Question 40

What is impulsivity?

Answer 40

A collection of multidimensional behaviours Incorporate state and trait classifications

Question 41

How do we measure impulsivity?

Answer 41

Self-reports, behavioural scores, electrophysiology

Question 42

What does deficient frontostriatal "top-down" cognitive control result in?

Answer 42

An inability to override thoughts that leads to actions Unable to prevent dangerous actions from occurring

Question 43

What activity is mainly involved in impulsivity?

Answer 43

Dorsalateral prefrontal activity

Question 44

There is a high association between impulsivity and what?

Answer 44

The incidence of substance use disorders

Question 45

What is the trait effect of impulsivity?

Answer 45

Mostly made up of decreased cognitive and response inhibition

Question 46

What is the state effect?

Answer 46

Acute and chronic use of drugs change brain structure and function

Question 47

What is compulsivity?

Answer 47

A tendency toward repetitive and habitual actions even when it harms you

Question 48

What are the effects of compulsivity?

Answer 48

Decreased voluntary control over urges Diminished ability to delay or inhibit compulsive behaviours A tendency to perform repetitive acts in a habitual or stereotyped manner

Question 49

What can repeated administration of addictive drugs lead to?

Answer 49

Compulsive drug-seeking behaviour

Question 50

What is at the core of the reward circuit?

Answer 50

VTA -> NAc DA-ergic projections

Question 51

What is at the core of anticipation circuits?

Answer 51

Front inputs (PFC)

Question 52

What is at the core of reinstatement/relapse circuits?

Answer 52

The amygdala

Question 53

What happens when drugs lose their euphoric effects?

Answer 53

Users continue taking the drug so they can achieve baseline cognitive function

Question 54

What is neuroplasticity?

Answer 54

An ability to form new connections, change wiring patterns, and establish new pathways in neural re-wiring

Question 55

What does the repeated firing of neurons induce?

Answer 55

Long-term changes via molecular signaling and transcriptional changes

Question 56

What potentiates new goal-directed circuits?

Answer 56

Striatal dopamine and glutamate

Question 57

How does addiction start?

Answer 57

Occasional recreational use then impulsive use then habitual compulsive use Goes from reward-driven behaviour to goal-driven drug-seeking behaviour

Question 58

What shift in control does addiction correlate with?

Answer 58

A ventral striatum-to-dorsal-striatum-mediated shift in control of drug-seeking behaviour

Question 59

What is tolerance?

Answer 59

Taking more drug without feeling effects or needing more of the drug to feel the same effect

Question 60

What is withdrawal?

Answer 60

Generally unpleasant affective moods and symptoms

Question 61

What is addiction triggered by?

Answer 61

Reward circuit activation and neuroplasticity in other regions

Question 62

What is dependence triggered by?

Answer 62

Tolerance/Withdrawal

Question 63

Are addiction and dependence the same?

Answer 63

No, it is possible to be dependent on a drug (anti-hypertensives, pain meds) without being addicted