Posted on 04/18/2011 11:18:14 AM PDT by Qbert
Taking cocaine just once can trigger dramatic changes in the brain, causing memory loss and leaving the user addicted, researchers have found.
The drug can 'hijack' normal memory function, making it difficult for those who have taken it to think about anything else.
The findings - the first to show cocaine's impact on the brain - will add to growing alarm about its long-term effects.
[Snip]
The processes which under-lie memory are also accelerated over this period.
Dr Antonello Bonci, assistant professor of neurology at the University of California in San Francisco, who led the research, said: 'The study shows that the capacity for strengthening connections between nerve cells - the basis for learning and memory - can be usurped by drugs of abuse.
The researchers - whose findings are published today in the scientific journal Nature - tested brain tissue from mice which had been given cocaine.
They focused on a part of the brain where cells called neurones produce a message transmitter chemical, dopamine, which plays a key role in addiction.
Dopamine release is linked to learning and memory via chemical and electrical signals.
Dr Mark Ungless, another member of the research team, said: 'What's so amazing is that nearly all dopamine neurones are affected by this single cocaine exposure.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
- Barack Hussein Obama
What about the millions of people who used cocaine infused cough syrups and other quackery tonics for decades in the Western world?
Does quoting the president make you a racist?
They're all dead....coincidence?
Coke Cola is name that for a reason.
Hey, I’m just stating the facts according to him!
It’s official. Cocaine really is a hell of a drug.
I blame them for the elecion of FDR and the welfare state that he started.
OPPPPSSS election
Oh good, another “crisis” to exploit.
Oh good, another “crisis” to exploit.
I’m just posting what the neurologists say. Don’t shoot the messenger. ;-)
Maybe he was talking about Larry Sinclair?
Well, I’m doomed. I’m surely going to die at some point in the future.
Somebody forward this to Charlie Sheen. Oh wait, too late.
Ask Len Bias.
12/08/2010
-snip-
"That one puff on that cigarette could be the one that causes your heart attack," said Surgeon General Regina Benjamin. "I advise people to try to avoid being around smoking any way that you can."
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