Firing a Laser Into Your Brain Could Help Beat a Drug Addiction

An anonymous reader writes "The prelimbic region of the prefrontal cortex in the human brain is thought to play a key role in drug addiction, and researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse wanted to see if manipulating cells there had a positive or negative impact on that addiction. They got some rats addicted to cocaine but not before loading them up with light sensitive proteins called rhodopsins that were placed in their prefrontal cortex, attaching to the neurons there. By shining a tuned laser light on to the prefrontal cortex, it was possible to activate and deactivate the cells. By turning them on with the laser, the addictive behavior of the rats was removed. Turning them off, even in non-addicted rats, saw the addictive behavior return or introduced."

Comments

Addiction

[geekymachoman]

So, this might be an end to nicotine/cigarettes ?

I'm just mentioning it. Since people obviously think that "drug addiction" means "cocaine/heroine addiction".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substance_dependence#Addictive_potential

How many people are cocaine/heroin addicts and how many are nicotine addicts ?

this doesn't solve the problem.

[Nyder]

Let's take heroin addiction for example. You know how many heroin addicts that get clean, yet go back to using the heroin? Pretty much all of them. Turning off the "addictive" cell won't change that. It's not about the addiction, it's about the high. It's about how the drug makes you feel.