Cocaine addicted individuals may continue their habit despite unfavorable consequences like imprisonment or loss of relationships because their brain circuits responsible for predicting emotional loss are impaired, according to a study conducted at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published today in The Journal of Neuroscience.
The study focuses on the difference between a likely reward (or loss) related to a given behavior and a person's ability to predict that outcome, a measurement known as Reward Prediction Error, or RPE. Such RPE signaling is believed to drive learning in humans, which guides future behavior. After learning from an experience, we can, in the best case, change our behavior without having to go through it again, and thus maximize rewards and avert expected losses. Past research has determined that prediction of actual reward or loss is managed by shifting levels of the nerve signaling chemical dopamine produced by nerve cells in the midbrain, where changes in dopamine levels accompany unexpected gains and losses.
[For more of this story go to http://medicalxpress.com/news/...ed-ability-loss.html]
Comments (0)