1 The Science of Addiction Webquest For this assignment you will be using the website of The University of Utah s Genetic Science Learning Library (http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/addiction/). For each section, click on the appropriate topic and answer the questions or complete the chart. Part 1: Drugs of Abuse - If there are any open spaces on your Psychoactive Drug Chart, you can use this link to get some additional information. It would also be helpful to go through the various explanation prior to your test next week. I would strongly encourage you to focus on the impact of ALCOHOL and COCAINE as these are the most common topics for the AP Exam. Part 2: Drug Delivery Methods What is the fastest way that a drug gets to the brain? How does rapid delivery change your brain? How has knowledge on delivery methods helped those who are addicted? What is the second fastest way that a drug gets to the brain? Part 3: Drug Use Changes the Brain over Time Addictive drugs can affect brain pathways involving reward. What neurotransmitter is the fuel of the reward pathway? This neurotransmitter creates of huge jolt of what? Life naturally brings jolts. However, natural jolts are not as dangerous as drugs. Why? What is tolerance? As people continue to use drugs more areas than just the reward pathway are influenced. Explain how. It is a good idea to stop using addictive drugs, obviously. However, the brain does not necessarily turn back to 100% normal. Explain why.
2 Part 4: Beyond the Reward Pathway As you learned in the previous section, psychoactive drugs impact the reward pathway and the dopamine system. But there are other pathways in the brain that are impacted. First, what is a pathway? There are 3 other pathways that dopamine impacts. Describe them here. Serotonin is another neurotransmitter affected by many drugs of abuse, including,, and. Serotonin plays a role in many brain processes, including: Problems with the serotonin pathways are linked to: Glutamate and GABA (gammaaminobutyric acid) are the brain s most plentiful neurotransmitters. Over half of all brain synapses use glutamate, and 30-40% use GABA. Since GABA is and glutamate is, both neurotransmitters work together to control many processes, including the brain s overall level of. Many of the drugs of abuse change the balance of glutamate or GABA, exerting tranquilizing or stimulating effects on the brain. Drugs that increase GABA or decrease glutamate are. Those that decrease GABA or increase glutamate are. Name some of the drugs that fall into the categories from the previous question:
3 Part 5: How Drugs can Kill Why do most people overdose? What combinations are especially dangerous? Cocaine can kill you in a variety of what ways? Part 6: Mouse Party Neuroscience Review: What does an inhibitory neurotransmitter do? Harry the Heroin Mouse What does heroin mimic? What does heroin bind to? Heroin turns off dopamine inhibition and dopamine floods the synapse. What is the result of this flooding? Why is morphine, a drug related to heroin, used as a pain-killer? Cannabinoid receptors turn off the release of what? Mike the Marijuana Mouse What is THC? What does THC do? What does it mimic? Anandemid is known to be involved in:
4 What are serotonin transporters responsible for doing? Edward the Ectasy Mouse Is Ectasy an agonist or antagonist for serotonin? How do you know this? What is the result of the transporter become confused? What happens to the excess serotonin? What is the result? Ectasy affects serotonin pathways responsible for: Inhibitory neurotransmitters called GABA are responsible for what? Alice the Alcohol Mouse Which is the function of glutamate? How does alcohol deliver a double sedative punch? Alcohol particularly affects what areas of the brain? LSD acts almost exclusively on. LSD resembles and elicits its effect by binding to. Laurent the LSD Mouse Why does LSD have complex sensory effects? LSD and other hallucinogens excite a particular region of the brain known as the. What is this part responsible for?
5 Carlisle the Cocaine Mouse What are dopamine transporters responsible for? What does cocaine do to the transporters? Be specific. Where does cocaine concentrate? (2 brain locations) Why are cocaine users fidgety? Marcus the Meth Mouse What neurotransmitter does meth mimic? Why is met so addicting?