Nicotine creates a chronic drug memory in the brain
ulia Morud Lekholm. Credit score: Elin Lindström Claessen The primary interval of nicotine abstinence proceeded as anticipated. The shock got here after three months when the lab rats abruptly grew to become fearless and sought out well-lighted areas that prey animals usually keep away from. On the identical time, signaling within the mind's reward system modified, as proven by a examine at Sahlgrenska Academy. "This means very long-lasting modifications attributable to nicotine that had been beforehand unknown. The nicotine seems to create a cascade of results that solely worsen and worse over time," says Julia Morud Lekholm, researcher in habit biology on the Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology. The experiment was achieved one other two instances. The researchers wished to be sure that the sudden outcomes weren't an remoted case. In whole, 108 animals had been examined, of which half acquired nicotine and half a salt res...