What is the correlation between addictions and rewards on the matter of drug and alcohol addiction?
The Duterte administration failed to totally eradicate addiction, thus prompting me to research as to why any form of addiction is difficult to get rid of. We live in a society that challenges our ability to shake addiction to video games, illegal drugs, alcohol, food, sodas and sex.
Vectava Health tackled the subject of the reward pathway of addiction: “Humans are wired to engage in rewarding behaviors. However, what the brain interprets as rewarding or pleasurable behavior isn’t always healthy. Behavior like using drugs and alcohol can be construed as rewarding by the brain but are destructive in the long term, as they can lead to addiction.”
A pathway refers to a group of brain structures that are activated by rewarding stimuli. The most crucial reward pathway in the brain is known as the mesolimbic dopamine system. Though there are other existing reward pathways, the dopamine reward system is a key detector of rewarding stimuli.
Vectava referred to a series of experiments conducted by James Olds and Peter Milner in the 1950s as the first indication of reward pathways in the brain. “...these experiments involved implanting electrodes into the brain of rats. The rats then pressed the levers which stimulated different areas of the brain. Olds and Milner found out that the rats repeatedly pressed the lever to receive stimulation to the front end of the brain called the corpus callosum.”
The report stated that this repetitive behavior was a strong indication that the rats were enjoying the stimulation. Both scientists concluded that when our brain structures are exposed to rewarding stimuli like drugs or alcohol, brains respond by increasing the release of the chemical dopamine.
Further research showed that the brain is hardwired to repeat rewarding behaviors as a survival instinct. Intrinsic rewards such as food, water, sex and nurturing allow for feelings of pleasure while eating, drinking, copulating and being nurtured.
How reward pathways and addiction are linked, which is the bottom line of my inquiry, was answered by the scientists’ study.
“The more someone repeats a behavior, the more reinforced that behavior becomes creating a feedback loop. After a certain amount of time, physical changes occur in the brain, altering the reward pathways permanently.”