American scientists have achievedeliminate addiction and the compulsive search for cocaine typical of drug addictsapplying laser light to the prelimbic region of theprefrontal cortexof rats. As published by the magazineNatureIn its latest edition, the new work demonstrates the key role that this area of the brain plays in drug addiction.
Cocaine addiction is the leading cause of heart attacks and strokes in young people under 35 years of age. One of the main symptoms is the compulsive use of the drug or the loss of the ability to control oneself not to consume it despite being aware that the drug “destroys life”, as emphasized by Billy Chen, from the National Institute of Abuse Drug Administration (NIDA) and co-author of the study, who adds that the most promising thing about the new treatment is that it makes this behavior disappear. And he gets italtering activity in the prefrontal cortex, a brain region essential for impulse control and decision-making. Not surprisingly, it has been shown that neurons in this region have a below normal activity in drug addicts.
In the novel technique recently developed by Chen and his colleagues, the researchers inserted light-sensitive proteins called rhodopsins into rodent neurons and used them to laser-turn neurons “off” and “on” as if they were switches. Thus they proved that when the neurons of the prefrontal cortex are deactivated, addictive behaviors arise, while when these cells are turned on again, addiction and the uncontrollable desire to consume drugs disappear. The authors speculate that reactivating this area of the brain in humans could make all traces of cocaine addiction disappear forever, although instead of using lasers in the clinic, electromagnetic stimulation would be used outside the skull, specifically a technique known astranscranial magnetic stimulation(ETC).
