How Drug Dependence Impacts Decision Making

Each month The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation hosts a Meet the Scientist Webinar featuring a researcher discussing the latest findings related to mental illness. In February, 2020, the Foundation featured Dr. Christina Gremel of the University of California, San Diego.

Description: Decision-making is disrupted in those suffering from drug-dependence. Dr. Gremel’s Lab uses rodent models to identify how drug-dependence changes brain areas involved in decision-making, with the goal of providing much-needed data on how to improve therapeutic treatment and restore appropriate self-control. She will discuss findings suggesting that goal-directed decision-making and the controlling neural circuits are disrupted in drug dependence, and touch on whether these deficits can be treated.

[KommentarSpaltenKrieger]

This was more than just mildly interesting.

[JJINGflower]

It was an interesting research! The mental illness and Alcohol dependence... Thank you for sharing!

[haroldpierre]

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:

15:03 🐭 Animal models are used to study decision-making and behavioral control in addiction research.
18:38 🎯 Goal-directed and habitual control are separate processes in decision-making, and they can emerge and strengthen over time.
23:10 🍺 Research in alcohol self-administration in rats helps determine whether alcohol-seeking behavior is goal-directed or habitual.
25:16 🧪 Devaluation tests in animal models reveal whether the value of alcohol consumption can override negative consequences.
06:38 📊 Alcohol use disorder is a prevalent and costly issue in the United States, with potential severe consequences.
25:32 🍺 Long-term alcohol self-administration can lead to a shift from goal-directed decision-making to habitual control, even in the presence of negative consequences.
28:33 🐭 Ethanol vapor exposure in mice can induce physical alcohol dependence, mimicking changes seen in human alcoholics.
33:08 🧠 Prior alcohol dependence can bias decision-making strategies toward habitual behavior and reduce goal-directed control.
40:25 🔵 The orbital frontal cortex (OFC) is implicated in value-based decision-making, and its activity may be reduced in alcohol dependence.
48:14 🧪 Alcohol dependence can reduce the excitability of OFC neurons, potentially impacting their role in decision-making processes.
50:20 🧠 Alcohol dependence reduces the activity of orbital frontal cortical neurons and impairs their ability to send information to the basal ganglia pathway, affecting decision-making.
52:38 💡 Activating orbital frontal cortex neurons in alcohol-dependent mice can restore goal-directed decision-making.
53:44 🧪 These findings provide valuable information for preclinical research and may help identify targets for drug therapies and guide transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) studies to improve cognitive behavioral flexibility.
55:19 📚 The researcher aims to explore how dependence affects different parts of the cortex and understand how disruptions in these areas impact decision-making, especially in adolescents.
58:23 🧠 It's important to consider that the brain continues to develop through the mid-20s, so avoiding substances like marijuana during this critical period is essential to protect brain development.

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