Anyone who has ever abused alcohol or cigarettes, he knows that to get rid of this kind of dependency is sometimes very difficult. Unfortunately, addiction to harmful substances while you can’t just turn off one button, but researchers from the medical center the Scripps Research closer to creating such a device. They found that using a laser on a certain area of the brain can suppress the desire to drink alcohol and even eliminate the tremors. The technology actually works, and this is demonstrated in the experiment with rats with alcohol dependence.
According to Professor Olivier George, they found in the mouse brain specific populations of neurons that are activated during alcohol withdrawal. The plot is pretty deep, so to get to it, the researchers had to introduce the head of the rat optic fibers. On the laser, they could greatly reduce his craving for alcohol.
It is noteworthy that the effect not only led to the weakening of dependence, but also reduced the tremor, which occurs when abstinence from alcohol. Unfortunately, when you turn off the laser the desire to drink came back to the rats again.
It is believed that the new discovery will allow to create new drugs, alcoholism, or even treatment method at the gene level. Moreover, in the future, scientists may create a brain implant to control dependencies. Unfortunately, to create needed technologies that are not yet approved for use on people, so that the output of such devices will have to wait at least 15-30 years. But researchers can develop drugs that affect a specific group of neurons — if funding is available, they can get out in 10-15 years.
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