On Wednesday Dr. Patterson spoke about addiction and the brain. He touched on many topics invovling the effects that different substances have on the brain. Many of the addictive substances or addictive because of how much dopamine the brain releases when the foriegn substance is present. For example, caffiene will produce a 20% increase in the level of dopamine, where as, meth will elivate the levels to over a 10,000% increase.
Alcohol will affect the brain differently. It effects the prefrontal lobe where reasoning occurs and it also affects the cerebellum where movement is controlled. It essentially puts them to sleep. Thus, a person feels 10 foot tall and bullet proof yet will fall off the bar stool.
Another facinating drug to me was nicotine. The only part of the brain not stimulated by the drug is the cerebellum. This is the main reason why nicotine is so addictive.
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