Impulse control and Addiction

Question 1

Which part of the brain is involved in addiction?

Answer 1

Frontal Striatal (involved in motivation - why impulse and addiction seen as motivational disorder)

Question 2

How many people have undergone lobotomy’s?

Answer 2

Around 40,000 in US and 70,000 in UK, 60% females, selectively on gay men
Between 1930s up to 1970s

Question 3

What percentage of the human brain is made up of the frontal lobe?

Answer 3

29% (pre-frontal = frontal lobe excluding motor areas)

Question 4

What is the function of the frontal cortex?

Answer 4

“When there is a choice between something harder and something easier, and the harder thing is the better thing to do, … [the frontal cortex] is the thing that makes you do the harder thing.” – Robert Sapolsky

Question 5

In a temporal discounting reward task, what results were found with people with FCD?

Answer 5

Much less willing to wait, more affected by delay

Question 6

What were the findings from the Iowa gambling task?

Answer 6

People with no damage figured out which good packs within 20-40 trials and maintained
People with orbitofrontal damage can’t figure out which deck - not necessarily can’t figure out, but can’t resist still choosing wrong deck

Question 7

What are four reasons people take drugs?

Answer 7

1. Experimentation
2. Pleasure
3. Medication
4. Peer pressure

Question 8

What are three characteristics of drug addiction?

Answer 8

1. Compulsive drug seeking and taking
2. Inability to stop and Hugh rates of relapse
3. When drugs become more wanted and less liked

Question 9

In alcoholics, there is reduced grey matter of what?

Answer 9

Cortical gray matter volume

Question 10

In Polysubstance abusers, there is a smaller volume of what part of the brain?

Answer 10

The prefrontal lobe

Question 11

In cocaine users, a study found reduced function of what part of the brain?

Answer 11

Orbitofrontal cortex during protracted withdrawal