The Brain's Reward Pathway
Addiction and Genes
Genetic susceptibility to addiction is the result of the interaction of many genes.
Build a pedigree for a family afflicted with nicotine addiction.
Learn how researchers hunt down genes.
The reward pathway funcions in much the same way in mice as it does in people.
Challenges and Issues
Addiction impacts society with many ethical, legal, and social issues.
Understanding the neurobiology of addiction is leading to new treatments, but addiction remains a medical challenge.
The Medical Marijuana Debate
Where do you stand on the medical marijuana debate?
The Challenge of Dual Diagnosis
Learn about the connections between drug addiction and mental illness.
The Connection and the Controversy
Is Ritalin a gateway drug?
Drugs and the Reward Pathway
Take a look at several drugs and their effects on the body.
Look inside the brains of mice on drugs.
See how methamphetamine affects a dopamine synapse.
The brain shows distinct changes after drug use that can persist long after that use is stopped.
Learn how drugs affect other pathways in the brain.
The faster a drug gets to the brain, the more likely it is to be addicting.
Many drugs can result in death by overdose.
Timing and Circumstances
Impacts the Reward Pathway
An individual’s social environment influences addiction risk.
If you use drugs when you’re an adolescent, you are more likely to develop lifetime addiciton.
A positive social environment protects against addiction.
- Credits
- Funding
Supported by a Science Education Drug Abuse Partnership Award (SEDAPA), from The National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health. Grant Number: R25DA15461
The contents provided here are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of NIH.