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Abstract:
Abstract: The complex factors influencing drug addiction and
its treatment require that new hypotheses be based on a systems and
cognitive neuroscience framework integrating animal and human
studies. Environmental stimuli associated with effects of drugs are
now well-known to control drug-seeking behavior in both animals and
humans. Such behavior depends on the integrity of a neural system
including the amygdala and ventral striatum, as well as the frontal
cortex. The drive to drug abuse may also be consolidated by
impulsive, risk taking tendencies which result from brain changes
induced by chronic drug administration. Evidence will be presented
of the effect of drugs on decision-making and impulsivity, in both
human drug abusers and rats, combined with changes in the
orbitofrontal cortex. Together, these data are beginning to
indicate a neural network that malfunctions as a consequence of
chronic drug-taking, including the prefrontal cortex, as well as
the amygdalo-striatal system.
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