Spring 2013 / 49825

Neurobiological Studies on Addiction (see "framing" comments at end of this web site)

Time, Place:

Class meets on Wednesdays, 2-4 pm, in BUR 130
First class meeting is on 20 March (after spring break, see Syllabus below)
Last class meeting is on 24 April (guest lecture)

Dr. Carlton Erickson, Pfizer Centennial Professor of Pharmacology and Director of the Addiction Science Research and Education Center, UT Austin.

Note that BIO 137 is no longer required for graduation in Human Biology. You should enroll in this seminar only if you are interested in the subject matter.

Grading will be pass/fail, based on attendance and participation. I will take notes on both. You should plan to attend class regularly, but you may miss one meeting, no questions asked.

The main purpose of each class meeting, except for the guest lecture, will be the discussion of the assigned readings, which may be review articles or original research papers. To access the readings, click on the links in the syllabus; feel free to print the readings for your personal use. You will be expected to participate in these discussions, which of course requires that you are familiar with the readings for the day. You may also bring up your own questions on the general topic; this is your seminar.

Animal and human behaviors are controlled by wants and rewards, desire and satisfaction. They play out in the brain as neuronal activities. The human brain is exceptionally large. It is also unusually “plastic”: parts of the brain that normally carry out certain functions may also take over other functions. Not surprisingly, then, one of our distinctively human features is the plasticity of our wants and rewards. No animal, not even star bonobo Kanzi, will find serving a tennis ball, or playing a piano sonata just perfectly, rewarding enough to practice these activities for many hours per week. One could argue that the plasticity of our motivational structure has allowed us to become the dominant species on Earth.

The flip side of human motivational plasticity is that our wants and rewards are easily derailed into behaviors that prove to be maladaptive, such as alcoholism or compulsive gambling. Such “addictions” come with enormous costs to individuals and societies, and they wreak havoc on untold numbers of families. The easy availability of drugs and the internet exacerbate the problem. Because of their devastating effects, addictions are often stigmatized or swept under the rug, and their public discussion can be contentious. How we view addictions has major legal and economic ramifications.

People who feel that their use of drugs or other stimuli is “getting out of hand” may turn to self-help programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous, which rely on behavior modification and fellowship. Meanwhile health care professionals, neurobiologists, and pharmacologists are trying to understand what is happening in the brains of addicts. Of particular interest are the neuronal events associated with “crossing the line” from voluntary abuse to dependency, when an addict loses the ability to stop using without help. As the science of addiction makes progress, the chances for dependent people of returning to balanced and productive lives should improve.

In this seminar, we will discuss a few recent articles from peer-reviewed journals on the neurobiology of addiction. These will be assigned readings. We will focus on dopaminergic pathways in the brain, which are easily "highjacked" by drug use and other addictive behaviors. The grand finale will be a guest lecture by Carlton Erickson, Pfizer Centennial Professor of Pharmacology and director of the Addiction Science Research and Education Center here at UT Austin. Dr. Erickson has spent much of his career on researching, lecturing, and educating the public about alcoholism. If you want to warm up for the seminar, you may want to read Dr. Erickson's book The Science of Addiction, New York: Norton (2007). There is also an excellent web site on the topic from McGill University at http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/i/i_03/i_03_cl/i_03_cl_par/i_03_cl_par.html