Addiction: Pulling at the Neural Threads of Social Behaviors

Addiction coopts the brain's neuronal circuits necessary for insight, reward, motivation, and social behaviors. This functional overlap results in addicted individuals making poor choices despite awareness of the negative consequences; it explains why previously rewarding life situations and the threat of judicial punishment cannot stop drug taking and why a medical rather than a criminal approach is more effective in curtailing addiction.PaperClip To listen to this audio, enable JavaScript on your browser. However, you can download and play the audio by clicking on the icon belowHelp with MP3 filesOptionsDownload audio (6942 K)