Recreational Drugs

• recreational drugs?

  psychoactive drugs that effects the mind and behaviour. They create an altered state and are taken for non medical purpose
• what do recreational drugs effect?

  perception, feelings, emotions
• what are some examples of recreational drugs

  LSD, Herion, Mushrooms, MDMA, Caffine
• other name for the reward pathway?

  mesolimbic pathway
• what does activation of reward pathway do?

  make us feel good, want to repeat behaviours
• what is the reward pathway adaptive and evolutionary function?

  ancestors having high calorie food activated the reward pathway and therefore they wanted more - storing more food on bodies for the time where food was little
• how does cocaine work?

  blocks reuptake of dopamine. resulting in high levels of dopamine in the synapses and they continue binding to receptors
• which neurotransmitter does cocaine block?

  dopamine
• how does methamphetamines work?

  meth goes into the nerve cells via dopamine transporters and into dopamine vesicles forcing real dopamine out. nerve cell works in reverse and lets all dopamine out into synapse again where dopamine binds to receptors
• dependency

  neural changes to the brain after repeated use which cause parts of brain to not work without drug
• tolerance?

  chemical imbalances in brain as withdrawal of drug after use then down regulates to the neurotransmitter effected to natural production. therefore them having lower levels of dopamine and needing more each time they use it to get same effect.
• downregulation

  brain reacting to an increase in dopamine caused by recreational drugs by reducing natural production
• withdrawal

  when a user stops taking drug lack of dopamine and more of the drug is needed to stop symptoms