My project involves how addictive behaviors are developed. I have worked in neuropharmacology for a while and there are a few schools of thought that exist. My collaborator and I look at how the presence of a drug in an adolescent brain triggers organizational changes which can lead to cognitive deficits. We had the ‘pleasure’ of meeting Dr. Carl Hart, a Columbia U neuroscientist and author of the book “High Price”. He categorically dismissed all of our research, he isn’t a fan of animal studies. I would like to hate his guts for this…BUT, some of his hypotheses for how addictions develop are compelling. He is highly controversial. If you have read his studies, or visited his website, you will understand.
We know that rats perform better cognitively when placed in enriched environments. Humans fail to thrive when deprived of interaction. So may these factors play a role in how addiction comes about? He gives examples of why drug addiction is endemic in impoverished areas, while those with more ‘enriched’ lives, if you will, will have different experiences (how some may be able to use drugs socially).
So, for my project, I wanted to investigate how experiences mold the self, development of relationships, support systems, and how this may influence your relationship with drugs. I plan to compare/contrast this with “Memoirs of an Addicted Brain” by another neuroscientist, Marc Lewis, and other texts which look at addiction through the lens of both science and personal experience (you would be surprised how many of these accounts exist…I’m beginning to think my collaborator and I are the only scientists who haven’t tried hard drugs…we are squares).
It’s kind of great that you are working with such a powerful source that provides a counter-argument but also helps you re-examine your own arguments. This sounds fascinating.
Will you use data from your own research as evidence? I’m curious to hear more about how you’ll integrate empirical data and evidence from Lewis’s autobiography and other first-person accounts of addiction experience.
I can also imagine an entire project focus on relationships between animal studies and human experience, but that’s probably too complicated to deal with in any detail here.
So many of the theories and arguments we’ve read have had implications for drug use (medicinal as well as recreational) and addiction, but since they weren’t the authors’ main focus, those implications have largely gone unexplored. I can imagine not only research papers but books to be written on this aspect of brain/self alone. I look forward to seeing what you do with this topic, Ayanna – and I even hold out a faint hope that my layman’s brain will be able to grasp your arguments!
I haven’t read Carl Hart, but weirdly enough, I know him…a little. He’s one of the coordinators for the Columbia chapter of a program I work with in my 9 to 5 life. The staff I work on is hosting a conference for these coordinators beginning tomorrow, which he’s attending – I will literally be saying hello to him within a day. Should I harass him about his behavior in your class? 😉 He’s definitely a Big Man on Campus and a polarizing figure – I see him on talk shows with some regularity too, and that kind of celebrity always ruffles some feathers among academics.
Speaking of which, I’ve been meaning to say – major congrats to you on getting tenure! I can imagine there might be a “meh” feeling of anticlimax in the wake of a big milestone like this, but I hope it brings you real satisfaction once the dust settles. It’s a huge accomplishment and I hope you feel and enjoy it as such! Well done.