Wednesday 23 April 2008

Drugs, Chemicals, The Brain and Behaviour

The sixth Background Briefing summarises briefly how psychoactive drugs influence chemical and electrical events in the brain, and how these changes may relate to their effects on behaviour.

Reminds me of the many days (25 years) I spent as a neuroscientist working with the neurotransmitter dopamine. I’m living in a very different world now!

‘Drugs of misuse cause a cascade of events in the brain that underlie their psychological effects. Of course, trying to understand the way that pharmacological effects at a cellular level are translated into psychological experiences is extremely complex and fraught with difficulties.’

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