Does a bear hibernate in the woods? –
July 8, 2019 – A brain-imaging study last year found the brain’s neural circuitry is alteredin young adults with cannabis dependence, especially for those who start in adolescence. “People with heavy cannabis use had abnormally high connectivity in brain regions important for reward processing and habit formation,” wrote the researchers, led by Peter Manza at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The findings were detailed in the journal Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging.
All human addictions point back to dopamine, a chemical that transmits information between the brain’s neurons. Dopamine regulates many functions, from attention and learning to motor skills and emotions. In particular, dopamine is largely responsible for the sense of pleasure, that human frailty behind many motivations and all addictions. But dopamine doesn’t act alone. There’s serotonin (another feel-good chemical), adrenaline, and others.
