New research carried out by scientists at Duke University (USA) reveals why it is so difficult to let go of a habit or implement an action plan for the new year , which we know as good new year’s resolutions. The key to this difficulty would be that our habits leave a palpable mark on specific brain circuits , preparing us to ‘feed’ these vices instead of to fight them.
Stop smoking, eat less sugar, exercise more, go less shopping … the list of purposes can be very varied but they all have something in common: we must break with the routine. However, we are faced with an important challenge: to overcome the functioning of our brain as a result of habit.
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The researchers used healthy mice that they instructed to generate a habit of consuming sugar at a different level , observing that those most ‘hooked’ on the sweet, kept pressing the lever to obtain sugar even when the treats were withdrawn. By comparing the brains of these mice (the electrical activity of the basal ganglia that regulates compulsive behavior) with the control group, they found that just by looking at isolated pieces of their brains in a Petri dish it was possible to discern which mice had ended up forming. a habit / addiction.
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Electrical signals from their brains also revealed that both push and stop were much more active in mice that had become “addicted” to sugar than in the rest, with the push signal being more prominent than the other.
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” This may be related to the fact that an addiction makes a person more likely to engage in other unhealthy habits as well ,” says Justin O’Hare, co-author of the work.
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“One day we may be able to direct these brain circuits to promote habits that we want and end the undesirable ones,” explains Nicole Calakos, leader of the study.
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The study has been published in the journal Neuron .
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