The next thing we'll learn is the world is round.

Or The Pope is Catholic or a bear lives in the woods. Cocaine use disrupts proper brain working.
Hat tip- Poliblog

New York, July 21 (IANS) Cocaine use disrupts connections between key brain regions, says a US study.

Neuroscientists Yuriori Goto and his team at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , who conducted the study say it would help shed light on the impulsive behaviour seen in addicts, reports NewScientist.com.

The scientists electrically stimulated the two different regions of the brain in a group of rats to examine the flow of information between the areas.They injected the rats with cocaine and measured this "plasticity".

They found that after taking the drug the normal connections between the two regions were interrupted. They then carried out a behavioural analysis. Half of the rats were given cocaine regularly for several days, while the rest were drug free.

The rodents were placed in a T-shaped maze where, based on a coloured signal, they had to make a choice over which arm of the maze to run down in order to receive a food-based reward.

At first, the drugged rats learned the rules fastest and so got their rewards quicker. But when the rules were changed, it was the drug-free rats that were able to learn the new rules most quickly and get their treats - the cocaine appeared to dull the drugged rats' adaptation abilities.

The cocaine was producing a deficit in their learning response strategy, said a researcher.

Researchers say this study may explain why cocaine addicts are oriented towards pleasure rather than other goals and have an impaired ability to make decisions. It could also be why addicts go back to taking more of the drug and ex-addicts often become addicted again faster than those who have never taken it.

They hope that understanding how connections operate between these brain regions may lead to new ways of treating drug addiction and a greater understanding of disorders such as schizophrenia, which is linked to the brain regions studied.

Indo-Asian News Service