Does Ecstasy Damage Neurons (Ricaurte Et Al 1992)

Question 1

Rhesus monkeys were given MDMA twice a day for four days (control monkeys were given saline)

Answer 1

One group of monkeys brains were removed two weeks later

One group of monkeys lived for an additional 7 years before their brains were removed

The image shows the presence of serotonin in neurons of the neocortex :

Left: no MDMA (neocortex)

Right: 2 weeks after MDMA

Right: damage appeared to be long-term because 7 years later there was some recovery, but it was not complete, where?

Frontal lobe
Amygdala
Hippocampus
Occipital-parietal region of the cortex

Question 2

Evidence in humans (McCann et al 2005)

Answer 2

Demonstration of reductions in SERT binding in the MDMA subject versus control

This was a study that followed on original research carried out on bonobo monkeys of SERT binding dysfunction from regular administration of MDMA

Toxic effects over time are clear at baseline

Question 3

Evidence of damaged serotonin receptors in the prefrontal cortex (Roberts and Montgomery 2015)

Answer 3

MDMA brains shows signs of poorer processing when working on challenging cognitive tasks when compared with naive participants

20 MDMA polydrug users and 20 drug naive people completed an inhibitory control task (random letter generation) while prefrontal haemodynamic response was assessed using functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)

Results showed although both MDMA and non users performed similarly well on the tests. The users prefrontal cortexes were significantly more active

This pattern indicates that the MDMA users brains needed to work harder to achieve the same results. Elevation of prefrontal cortex activity was the most extreme among those who has used the largest amounts of MDMA over time, and among those who has used it most recently

Question 4

Effect of MDMA use on impulsivity

Answer 4

Response time (Curran, 2001)
Errors before correct responses