Summary: Researchers have discovered a method in the mind that explains how cognitive functions, particularly memory, are impacted by drugs like methamphetamine and PCP. The study demonstrates that these medications cause hormone switching in the brain brain, where activating serotonin neurons switch to negative GABA neurons, leading to memory loss.
Interestingly, researchers used chemical tools and the antipsychotic medication clozapine to reverse this move and restore storage performance in mice. This finding might help to develop treatments to treat drug-induced cognitive difficulties and other mental disorders.
Important Information:
- Storage is impacted by cocaine and PCP, which causes neurons to move from serotonin to GABA.
- In mice, the hormone move is reversed, restoring cognitive function.
- The results could pave the way for novel treatments for mental disorders like substance abuse.
Origin: UCSD
The effects of persistent substance use can be seen in a variety of ways. Some of the consequences that can last for years are memory loss and diminished mental function. A mental mechanism that causes drug-induced mental impairments has now been discovered by neurologists at the University of California San Diego.
Researchers at the School of Biological Sciences ‘ Department of Neurobiology discovered how phencyclidine (PCP or “angel dust” ), which work by activating various brain targets, causes a similar decline in cognitive ability. How could the same storage issues arise as a result of medications that cause various brain functions?
The results of this investigation, led by Assistant Project Scientist Marta Pratelli in Professor Nicholas Spitzer’s labs, are published in , Nature Communications. They reported that a hormone switching procedure caused neurons to alter how they communicate through meth and PCP.
Hormone transitioning is a branch of brain plasticity that is evolving. It is a study that examines how the brain alters structure and function in response to experience. In recent years, Spitzer and his associates have also identified jobs for hormone switching in , autism spectrum disorder,  , post-traumatic pressure disorder , and in , training.
The investigators examined the cerebral cortex of mice and discovered that meth and PCP each caused a switch from the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate to the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA ( gamma-aminobutyric acid ) in the same neurons in the prelimbic region, an area of the frontal cortex involved in executive functions.
Since drug-treated animals performed well in the tasks when the manifestation of GABA was blocked, this change was linked to a increases in storage work performance.
More studies demonstrated that the researchers were able to change this hormone transfer using chemical tools to directly lower the body’s electrical activity or using clozapine, an schizophrenic drug, after repeated exposure to the drugs. Each of these therapies helped animals regain their cognitive abilities after eradicating memory decline.
These findings point to the potential for targeted cerebral adjustment to lessen some of the negative consequences of repeated substance use, Pratelli said.  ,  ,
The researchers in this new study concluded that the hormone change was necessary for the release of serotonin, a hormone involved in reward, and for the boost in the electrical exercise of the cerebral cortex.
This research reveals a common and removable mechanism that controls the development of mental deficits after taking various medications, Spitzer said.
A deeper understanding of brain processes linked to memory loss from drug use, as noted by the researchers in their paper, may increase the chances of developing new treatments, which would include meth and PCP usage as well as other neurological conditions.
The experts included Marta Pratelli, Anna Hakimi, Arth Thaker, Hyeonseok Jang, Hui-quan Li, Swetha Godavarthi, Byung Kook Lim and Nicholas Spitzer.
Funding: Funding for the study was provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse ( R21 CEBRA grant DA048633, and R21 DA050821 ) and the Overland Foundation.
About this information about obsession and consciousness research
Author: Mario Aguilera
Source: UCSD
Contact: Mario Aguilera – UCSD
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Start exposure.
Marta Pratelli and colleagues ‘” Drug-induced change in receiver identity is a shared system generating mental imbalances.” Nature Communications
Abstract
A shared mechanism that causes cognitive deficits is a drug-induced shift in receiver personality.
The parallel process by which various pharmacological properties of various drug classes cause related deficits is not known, despite the fact that mental deficits are long-lasting consequences of drug use.
We discover that phencyclidine and methamphetamine, despite having different mind targets, both cause the same glutamatergic cells to develop a Glutamatergic phenotype and lower their glutamatergic expression.
Memory deficits are prevented by suppressing drug-induced GABA acquire with RNA-interference. This obtain of GABA is required and enough to be produced by activation of dopaminergic neurons in the lateral tegmental area.
This shift in receiver identity is caused by drug-induced cerebral hyperactivity. Restoring frontal activity to its original level, whether chemogenetically or by taking clozapine, reverses the transmitter’s change and relieves the memory deficits that come with it.
This research reveals a common and removable device that controls the development of mental deficits after a drug exposure.
