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Article: How It All Starts Inside Your Brain: Science: New research on how cocaine, heroin, alcohol and amphetamines target neuronal circuits is revealing the biological basis of addiction, tolerance, withdrawal and relapse.(Special Report)
- Article from:
- Newsweek
- Article date:
- February 12, 2001
- Author:
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One by one, each crack addict took his turn in the fMRI tube, its magnets pounding away with a throbbing bass. A mirror inside was angled just so, allowing the addict to see a screen just outside the tube. Then the 10-minute video rolled. For two minutes, images of monarch butterflies flitted by; the fMRI, which detects active regions in the brain, saw nothing untoward. Then the scene shifted. Men ritualistically cooked crack... an addict handed cash to a pusher... users smoked. It was as if a neurological switch had been thrown: seeing the drug scenes not only unleashed in the addicts a surge of craving for crack, but also triggered visible changes in their brains as ...