Mesolimbic pathway

Some stimulant drugs contain properties that allow the pathway to be activated in the ventral tegmental and striatum area. Dopamine factors are involved in reward mechanisms due to drugs. The activation of the dopamine mechanism is due to euphoria created from the drug. (Breiter HC et al.) Experiencing stress…

Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness that affects human beings in varying degrees. It is a persistent and incapacitating brain ailment that has affected many people throughout the world. (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/schizophrenia/index.shtml, October 25, 2014). Statistics show that 2.2 million people in USA, and 51 million people worldwide suffer from schizophrenia. Its prevalence tends to be the same throughout the world with about .5% to 1% in every country. It is present in all…

More desirable foods act as natural stimulates that increase the quantity of food a person would eat, foods that generally are high in saturated fats and salt. The signal response from eating the food stimulates the mesolimbic dopamine pathway. The theory suggests that foods that are more desirable, cause stimulation from senses such as smell and sight which cause orexin neurons to activate and release dopamine into the preoptic area of the hypothalamus (POA), the nucleus accumbens…

According to Sugarscience (2006), for some people sugar can be an addiction, and they will have cravings and withdrawal syndromes together with chemical changes in the part of their brains, which is responsible for repeating, the mesolimbic reward pathway. Scientists from the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) demonstrated that sugar can cause changes in brains similar to cocaine and alcohol (Volkow and Li, 2004). People will have a higher desire for sugar intake (Avena, Rada, and…

One of the first studies that looked at the effects of gaming on the dopaminergic pathway was a study by Koepp and colleagues (1998) that took positron emission topography (PET) scans of eight male participants while they were playing a video game. The authors found that there were greater dopamine increases in the ventral striatum (where the NAc is located) in the experimental condition (playing the video game) than in the control condition (looking at an empty screen). Furthermore, while…

Sexual, Physical and Verbal abuse have devastating long-term effects on children and their development. Child abuse causes higher rates of depression, an increase in the likelihood of developing an addiction as well as socioeconomic consequences later in life. When a child is abused, they tend to begin forming negative thought patterns, which, after many years will develop into mental illnesses such a depression and anxiety. As well as having severe mental health problems, abuse survivors are at…

An individual with schizophrenia usually displays three kinds of symptoms. First, positive symptoms are best explained as excesses in perception. To elaborate, positive symptoms include delusions and hallucinations. Delusions are maintained ideas or beliefs regardless of the fact that evidence has proven them to be false. Specifically, delusions can include the belief that your own thoughts are being controlled or even inserted into your brain by an external force. Other common delusions of…

dependence, however the DSM-V explains that disorders arising from drug use are caused by the activation of the brain’s reward system (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Addiction occurs when a drug causes increased dopamine release in the mesolimbic pathway, thus activating the reward system (Arias-Carrion, Stamelou, Rodrigues, Gonzalez, & Poppel, 2010). This activation increases the feelings of pleasure and euphoria, leading to a desire, and eventually a need for repeated stimulation.…

Millions of individuals are affected and living with bipolar disorder everyday. Bipolar disorder is present in approximately 5.7 million American adults, or an equivalent of 2.6 percent of the US population (Kerner, 2014). Bipolar disorder is also known as “manic depression.” It is a mental disorder that is marked by the constant changing of moods. Most of the time it goes from periods of depression to periods of being extremely happy or being very irritable. Bipolar disorder is a common,…

Schizophrenia Overview of Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is one of the challenging mental disorders that affect the way individuals think clearly, distinguish between real and unreal, manage emotions, relate to people, and function normally. Although this does not mean that a patient suffering from Schizophrenia may not live usual life. Many of Schizophrenia patients find themselves in lifelong problems due to ignorance (Kisch, 2008). Scientific studies show that although most cases of…