Event explores human addiction research
Our brains are still developing and will continue to do so until our mid-twenties, said Timothy Shahan, a psychology professor at USU who spoke to students Friday about the use of animals in understandings addiction and human behavior.
“Character, judgment, willpower have their basis in brain function, and they can be changed,” Shahan said.
Shahan began the lecture by describing Phineas Gage, a man who lived during the 1800s, and how an accident caused much of the front part of his brain to be destroyed, leading to a different personality.
Shahan described the experiments that Pavlov ran on dogs, and how that type of conditioning is similar to the actions that cause addiction in humans.
Stimuli are used to produce certain actions, and that this is true of humans, Shahan said. The “open” signs on the doors of businesses are an example of stimuli that we use, in this case to know when we are able to go in and receive goods and services.
“We’ve known for a very long time that this sort of reward learning plays a very large role in addiction,” Shahan said. “Turns out that drugs function as re-enforcers for behavior that produces them.”
Shahan said that addiction is a disease of the brain that affects the decision-making parts of the brain, and drugs “hijack” the functions of the brain that produce the same chemical you would receive from pleasurable experiences such as spending time with your children.
Addiction is also characterized by compulsive and habitual drug-seeking and loss of control, Shahan said.
“You can’t stop, and you relapse when you do manage to stop.”
Shahan then started to talk about drug cues. Shahan said that if you show someone a drug cue and the same urges associated with drug use appear. Shahan said animal lessons are useful in learning about human brain functions because these sorts of cues can be seen in animals as well as people. Shahan also said that it is not exactly the same, but drugs that humans abuse work the same way as rewards for animals. The primary focus of his research has to do with conditioning and reward learning, Shahan said.
Shahan also shared the results his research yielded, and said applying each result to data collected on human behavior allowed for a greater understanding of the behavior cues and how the reward cycle affects these results.
Afterwards, there were several activities, organized by Amy Odum, an associate professor with the USU psychology department, including a real human brain on display. Several activities allowed participants to test their own propensities in regard to Shahan’s research, such as testing how long you are willing to wait for larger rewards, and your aptitude for problem solving.
Kerry Jordan, an associate professor at USU, described her work on infants and their ability to understand abstract concepts. Jordan said that both she and Shahan are interested in how people learn.
“He’s looking at largely maladaptive human behavior. I’m looking at how humans universally think about certain concepts.” Jordan said.
Michelle Woidneck, doctoral student at USU and a member of the anxiety disorder clinic, said there are connections between conditioning and some symptoms of anxiety, and the clinic’s research is just one of the many studies using variable methods to study human behavior.
For more information on addictive behavior, the website for the National Institute on Drug Abuse,http://drugabuse.gov/nidahome.html, has information for different age groups on drug abuse and addictive behaviors.
– randall.henry@aggiemail.usu.edu