Comments on: The Drug Addictions Of Mice And Men http://popsych.org/the-drug-addictions-of-mice-and-men/ The Internet's Best Evolutionary Psycholo-guy Wed, 03 Jan 2018 01:05:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: Andreas http://popsych.org/the-drug-addictions-of-mice-and-men/#comment-1034 Andreas Thu, 01 Oct 2015 12:42:42 +0000 http://popsych.org/?p=4497#comment-1034 Your finding that addiction might be related to a general preference for short-term rewards over long-term rewards is not really opposed to the idea that a lack of social connection facilitates addiction. The psychobiologist Jaak Pansepp has stated that "social affect and social bonding are in some fundamental sense opioid addictions." The opioid system is used to motivate social connection, and deprivation of social connection is an opioid deprivation. Drugs acting on the opioid system provide the soothing and relief that evolution has shaped us into demanding from our social environments. Yet, I think it would be foolish to state that all addiction is a "lack of love" as for instance Gabor Maté would have it. Alcohol addiction can be cured by the opioid antagonistic drug naltrexone, but it doesn't quite have the same effect on nicotine addiction. At first it helps, but when they wear off naltrexone, the addiction resurfaces. There is something else going on--it's not just a simple opioid conditioning phenomenon. To understand nicotine addiction, we must understand the habenula. Until recently, this epithalamic structure was woefully neglected. Then researchers began to realize that it may be the most important structure in the brain relevant to addiction. The lateral habenula is activated by pain and disappointment, and controls levels of dopamine, noradrenaline and serotonin in the brain. This is very interesting. Methylphenidates potentiate dopamine and noradrenaline activity in the brains of individuals with ADHD, and the result is enhanced self-regulatory abilities ("willpower"). Serotonin has by some researchers been dubbed the "willpower molecule" because it controls whether animals are able to ignore a smaller short-term reward in order to claim a larger long-term reward. And here we have a structure in the brain which controls both. Fascinating! Now what is the relation between serotonin, dopamine, and willpower? Researcher Okihide Hikosaka has suggested that dopamine reports changes in value states (better/worse), while serotonin reports global levels of value (good/bad). When you're in a poor value state (depleted of resources, e.g. social connection), certain outcomes are better than uncertain outcomes--you can't afford to take risks. So what happens? You prefer short-term rewards to long-term rewards. So I think it's still meaningful to talk about a lack of social connection in addiction, while keeping in mind that it's really desirable/undesirable biological value states that control short-term/long-term behavioral strategies. Your finding that addiction might be related to a general preference for short-term rewards over long-term rewards is not really opposed to the idea that a lack of social connection facilitates addiction.

The psychobiologist Jaak Pansepp has stated that “social affect and social bonding are in some fundamental sense opioid addictions.” The opioid system is used to motivate social connection, and deprivation of social connection is an opioid deprivation. Drugs acting on the opioid system provide the soothing and relief that evolution has shaped us into demanding from our social environments.

Yet, I think it would be foolish to state that all addiction is a “lack of love” as for instance Gabor Maté would have it. Alcohol addiction can be cured by the opioid antagonistic drug naltrexone, but it doesn’t quite have the same effect on nicotine addiction. At first it helps, but when they wear off naltrexone, the addiction resurfaces. There is something else going on–it’s not just a simple opioid conditioning phenomenon.

To understand nicotine addiction, we must understand the habenula. Until recently, this epithalamic structure was woefully neglected. Then researchers began to realize that it may be the most important structure in the brain relevant to addiction. The lateral habenula is activated by pain and disappointment, and controls levels of dopamine, noradrenaline and serotonin in the brain. This is very interesting. Methylphenidates potentiate dopamine and noradrenaline activity in the brains of individuals with ADHD, and the result is enhanced self-regulatory abilities (“willpower”). Serotonin has by some researchers been dubbed the “willpower molecule” because it controls whether animals are able to ignore a smaller short-term reward in order to claim a larger long-term reward. And here we have a structure in the brain which controls both. Fascinating!

Now what is the relation between serotonin, dopamine, and willpower? Researcher Okihide Hikosaka has suggested that dopamine reports changes in value states (better/worse), while serotonin reports global levels of value (good/bad). When you’re in a poor value state (depleted of resources, e.g. social connection), certain outcomes are better than uncertain outcomes–you can’t afford to take risks. So what happens? You prefer short-term rewards to long-term rewards.

So I think it’s still meaningful to talk about a lack of social connection in addiction, while keeping in mind that it’s really desirable/undesirable biological value states that control short-term/long-term behavioral strategies.

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