The Addicted Self : A Neuroscientific Perspective

Share: (@ucd_oa) Some rights reserved. For more information, please see the item record link above. One of the charms of drunkenness unquestionably lies in the deepening of the sense of reality and truth which is gained therein. In whatever light things may then appear to us, they seem more utterly what they are, more 'utterly utter' than when we are sober. Intoxicants are remarkable; they arouse us and incite us to action. This emotional excitement gives us pleasure and a greater belief in the intoxicant and the reality of the pleasure it provides. This primary self-consciousness is provided for by the brainstem and the limbic, or hedonic, system that act in tandem to regulate bodily functions concerned with consummatory and defensive behaviours. It is a value system; a system whose extensive connections adjust the response of hormones and the autonomic nervous system to emotional demands. It responds slowly, in seconds to minutes. Unlike the cortex, which has discrete functional regions designed to deal with signals from the exterior, the limbic-brainstem loop system has evolved to match the body. Heart rate, sweating, appetite, digestion, sex and sleep are all regulated by this system; it deals solely with the interior and maintains our state of well-being. This is homeostasis, the mechanism that maintains stability within the physiological systems and holds all parameters of our internal milieu within limits that allow us to survive (Sterling and Eyer, 1981). Intoxicants not only alter our primary self-consciousness; the emotional context of their use can unknowingly influence our judgements of their effects. For example, the whole history of witchcraft and early medicine involves human belief in intoxicants; any remedy is a relief once accompanied by emotional circumstance such as the laying on of physician's hands or the rhythmic chanting of the shaman (Vitebsky, 2001). It would seem that normal responses become separated from information based on our learning and memory of prior associations and inferences. The amygdala is a brain structure believed to be involved in such post-perceptual processing and is closely located to brain regions involved in information processing, such as the hippocampus. The amygdala also receives visual information stored in the cortex and uses this to influence perceptual processing in other brain areas. In this way, the social significance of stimuli being processed by the amygdala influences our memory, decision-making, and other more general cognitive functions Sensory signals from exterior environments are delivered to …