A team of scientists from the University of Maastricht (Netherlands) has confirmed that a single dose of cocaine already has direct effects on our brain, altering the perception of basic emotions and interfering when it comes to recognizing negative emotions, such as sadness or jealousy .
The researchers conducted an experiment with 24 students between the ages of 19 and 27, who were divided into two groups: the first was given 300 mg of cocaine orally and the control group a placebo. Every 2 hours, the participants underwent several biochemical tests as well as a facial emotion recognition test to measure their response to a series of basic emotions, such as happiness, fear, sadness, anger or disgust.
The results revealed that in the group of volunteers who had taken cocaine, the first dose distributed already caused the participants to have more difficulty recognizing negative emotions, compared to those who took the placebo . There was also an increase in heart rate and an increase in levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
“ A single dose of cocaine interferes with a person’s ability to recognize negative emotions , such as anger and sadness. This could hamper the ability to interact in social situations, but it may also help explain why cocaine users show higher levels of sociability when intoxicated, simply because they cannot recognize negative emotions, ”explains study leader Kim Kuypers.
Specifically, the scientists reported that the subjects who took cocaine had a 10% lower performance in recognizing sadness and anger , compared to the group that was administered a placebo.
The study has been presented to the European Congress of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP).
