Scientists may have just found a way to calm down the Tony Montana's of the world. Their solution? Simply zap their brains with lasers until they don't want cocaine anymore.
Although it sounds crazy, researchers at the National Institute of Health (NIH) insist that they have already performed successful experiments on the drug-addicted mice that took part in a study they performed. The results were pretty straight-forward.
"When we turn on a laser light in the prelimbic region of the prefrontal cortex, the compulsive cocaine seeking is gone," said Antonello Bonci, Scientific Director at NIH's National Institute on Drug Abuse, in a press release.
Here's where it gets really interesting though. The scientists then decided that they would try to turn a laser light onto the same section of the prefrontal cortex in non-addicted mice. Those mice then developed an addiction towards cocaine as if the the scientists had just flipped a switch.
Scientists have long understood that the prefrontal cortex plays a huge role in decision-making, impulse control, and of addiction, and so these results are not entirely unsurprising. However, this is not the only section of the brain drawing interest from researchers who are studying cocaine addiction.
Researchers at Michigan State Univesity identified in March another region of the brain that seems to be overwhelmingly affected by cocaine: the nucleus accumbens. The nucleus accumbens is located closer to the middle of the brain (while the prefrontal cortex is on the outside) and is renowned as the "pleasure seeking" portion of our gray matter.
"Understanding what happens molecularly to this brain region during long-term exposure to drugs might give us insight into how addiction occurs," said Robison, assistant professor in the Department of Physiology and the Neuroscience Program at Michigan State University.
The researchers at Michigan State are taking a different approach than shooting lasers at their subjects, however. They found success in treating the addiction in mice on a genetic level instead.
"This sort of molecular pathway could be interrupted using genetic medicine, which is what we did with the mice," he said. "Many researchers think that is the future of medicine."