In this course you’ll get an evidenced-based look at the parts of the brain responsible for addiction, the changes in the brain that occur during addiction, the risk factors for addiction, and an overview of how different drugs affect the brain. We’ll also explore the neurobiology and evidence for behavioral addictions such as food addiction and gambling addiction, and take a look at how addiction can be treated.
Pre-requisites: This course integrates several concepts explored in earlier courses. it can be taken on its own, but we recommend students have working knowledge of these concepts: Basic structure of the brain (covered in BIED 301: ‘Introduction to the nervous system’), Neuron structure and function (covered in BIED 311: ‘Cells of the nervous system’), Neural signaling, especially synaptic transmission (covered in BIED 316: ‘Using neural signaling to understand pain’), Neural circuits (covered in BIED 321:‘The neurobiology of sleep’), How rodents are used as models in neuroscience research (covered in BIED 306: ‘How do we study the brain?’).