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Biotech Science

Addicting Mice To Light 92

Posted by timothy from the don't-tell-the-marlboro-people dept.
Al writes "In an attempt to better understand how the reward system in the brain functions in people suffering from addiction, scientists at Stanford have created mice that are addicted to light. They engineered light-sensitive proteins to trigger signaling pathways in the nucleus accumbens, a part of the brain that responds to pleasurable stimuli. They then connected a fiber-optic cable to this part of the brain and delivered a blast of light whenever the mice wandered into a 'reward chamber.' In previous experiments the mice have been given drugs like cocaine or amphetamine when they enter these rooms. The light treatment works in exactly the same way but lets the researchers very precisely control timing and dose of reward administered to the brain. The approach could also provide a way to probe receptors that cannot be accessed using existing drugs."
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Addicting Mice To Light More

Addicting Mice To Light

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  • What, plants weren't good enough?
  • This would get thousands of people out of their basements this summer, and some of them might even get laid!

  • Morning people (Score:3, Funny)

    by geekgirlandrea ( 1148779 ) <andrea+slashdot@persephoneslair.org> on Thursday March 19, 2009 @03:23PM (#27261025) Homepage

    Do they bounce out of bed at the crack of dawn and show up in the office all bright and sunny with plenty of time to spare for some horrid 9 AM meeting or something? Oh, wait, that's light-addicted humans.

  • Nucleus Accumbens (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MindlessAutomata ( 1282944 ) on Thursday March 19, 2009 @03:23PM (#27261033)
    It should be noted that the nucleus accumbens is also involved in -expectation of reward- and not necessarily reward itself. This is a major part of addiction--the addict may be desensitized to the effects of the drug but nonetheless may seek out the drug due to EXPECTATION of "reward" and to keep away withdrawal symptoms.

    The mice associating the rooms with the effects of the drug is directly applicable to humans. Anyone who has tried to quit smoking may have had a difficult time during smoke break time because the context cues one to expect/desire their fix. Good way to kick the habit, if you're looking to do so, is not to hang out in the same spots you did your drug, not to hang out with the same people, so on and so forth. Otherwise, you'll likely fall back into your own habits.

    • Re:Nucleus Accumbens (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ZeroExistenZ ( 721849 ) on Thursday March 19, 2009 @04:17PM (#27261771)

      The thing with such things is, that it is adjusted and you cannot "avoid" situations; it requires to create new associations by overriding them by entering those situations and acting differently in them, otherwise you're just avoiding and running from it.

      I've quit smoking too, after 8 years of smoking, and realized how the associations trigger the way you explained and made sure once I got comfortable with my new "identity" to face these situations and create new associations until I could transpose myself into that situation without imagening a cigarette with it. Never had the urge to smoke again.. It did some recallibration of my life, but by making some acts contious and realizing I could "override" certain less desired quirks or habits, I felt liberated to be freed from routine in that way and maximize my personal experiencing (you are missing out alot of detail when you're doing something routinely, if you change your routine, do things which are extraordinary to you, or by breaking what you are used to, more sticks and there is a much broader spectrum to hook associative information to instead of overloading and saturating a limited amount of recurrent happenings/items/impressions/... making them harder to access in your mine, plus you're contiously aware of much more in the same way you rely on routine and discard alot of information as "recurrent", when it's not outside of your limited perception.).
      Concerning my "new identity": my uncontious still struggled to adjust: I would smoke in my dreams because it was the way I had perceived myself like that for years. But the changed reality would collide and would wake me up in my dream, resulting in a lucid dream because my contious mind started wondering why there was a sigarette, trying to figure out wherever I did smoke or not).

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by HTH NE1 ( 675604 )

        Just trying to help: there's no "t" in either "conscious" or "unconscious". There's also one's "conscience" which seems to want to be wrong for not being pronounced con-science. They are difficult words, easily leading to confusion. Then there's "conscientious" which does have a "t". "Consensual" is another troubling word in the group, especially with the root "consent" having its "t" change to an "s" and feeling wrong for being more like "sense" than "sent".

        I look upon all those words with suspicion when I

        • Thanks for pointing that out and giving constructive feedback! ;)
        • I, for one, welcome our new polite pedantic overlords. ;)

        • "Consensual" is another troubling word in the group, especially with the root "consent" having its "t" change to an "s" and feeling wrong for being more like "sense" than "sent".

          That's because "consent" is from the Latin "consentire" while "consensual" is from the Latin "consensus". My Latin isn't all that sharp, but if I had to guess I'd suspect the difference is because one of them is an action taken by one person while the other indicates several people acting together.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by kmac06 ( 608921 )
          I knew there was one in one of these, or something like it, and I think I got it: conscientious (wow I actually spelled it right the first try haha).

  • Now for the sharks (Score:3, Funny)

    by interkin3tic ( 1469267 ) on Thursday March 19, 2009 @03:31PM (#27261133)

    Next step: do this with sharks
    Step after next: reverse it, such that every time a shark does a line of coke, it shoots a laser out of it's brain.

  • All I can say (Score:5, Funny)

    by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Thursday March 19, 2009 @03:40PM (#27261273) Journal
    All I can say is the poor mice. Considering all the things the mice go through for us, all the research they help us accomplish, I think we really owe them an answer. Or a question, as the case may be.

    • Feel free to visit the nearest pet shop and try that, but I doubt the mice are going to pay much attention.

  • Why the fuck is this not tagged Wirehead yet?

    • Actually, this is kind of scary when you think about it. If the mice are actually addicted to the jolt to the pleasure center of the brain, wouldn't that imply that anything that produces a similar jolt could be addictive?

      Personally, I always assumed there was a fundamental difference between "I'm addicted to cocaine" and "I'm addicted to World of Warcraft". If this research is confirmed that would mean the difference only one of degree, the cocaine just hits your pleasure center harder and faster. I sup

      • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Not physical withdrawal symptoms, maybe...

        • Cocaine doesn't really produce what's considered "physical withdrawal". Psychological withdrawal certainly and pronounced cravings, but physical withdrawal in the traditional sense is limited to alcohol, opiates, benzodiazepines, and barbiturates. In order for physical withdrawal to occur the drug has to act on the GABA system, whereas stimulants like: cocaine, amphetamine, caffeine, and nicotine act on the dopamine and serotonine systems. That isn't to say that stimulants are not addictive, just that they

      • Why scary? (Score:1, Troll)

        by reiisi ( 1211052 )

        The difference is (we would assume) that light is not poisonous.

        If you didn't know that most of the addiction function is mental, and that the poison of choice is only useful in suppressing the conscious mind from questioning the mental addictive processes, you're not understanding the whole process.

        (I'd mention something about something called repentance here, but I'm sure that would earn me a few -1 trolls.)

      • Personally, I always assumed there was a fundamental difference between "I'm addicted to cocaine" and "I'm addicted to World of Warcraft". If this research is confirmed that would mean the difference only one of degree, the cocaine just hits your pleasure center harder and faster.

        There would still be a fundamental difference... WoW, if you were addicted to it, would make you feel good by "naturally" causing your body to produce the chemicals that made you feel happy. Taking drugs short-circuits that by dumping a load of chemicals in your brain and watching the circuits light up.

    • Yeah, that or "droud". Immediately thought of Niven :)

  • OT (Score:4, Funny)

    by MasterOfDisaster ( 248401 ) <kristopf.gmail@com> on Thursday March 19, 2009 @04:13PM (#27261723) Homepage Journal

    I guess if Fiber-to-the-Home isn't fast enough, you've got to try Fiber-to-the-Brain.

    Stream porn straight to your visual cortex. Backup your memories with Google Hippocampus Beta. I guess mobility might be a bit of a problem, though. I wonder if it comes with one of those cool head jars?

    • *pssst* dude... ya gotta try some of these photons. premium stuff, straight from Columbia!

    • I guess if Fiber-to-the-Home isn't fast enough, you've got to try Fiber-to-the-Brain.

      Have you ever jacked in? Have you ever wire tripped? No? [smirk] A virgin brain. Well, we're gonna start you off right.

      This isn't like "TV only better", this is life. Yeah, this is a piece of somebody's life. Pure and uncut, straight from the cerebral cortex. You're there! You're doing it, seeing it, hearing-hearing it. You're feeling it.

      It's about the stuff you can't have, right? Like running into a liquor store with a .357 magnum in your hand, feeling the adrenaline pumping through your veins. I can make

  • I mean if you have the ability to just flip a switch and make me happy, I'd sure like that. I've been feeling kinda low lately and would surely enjoy having a nice button I could press... press... press... press... pressssusss... my precious...

  • Lit rooms (Score:3, Funny)

    by Translation Error ( 1176675 ) on Thursday March 19, 2009 @04:25PM (#27261863)
    It is bright. You are likely to be attacked by a mouse.
  • I was once robbed by a gang of mice trying to score a hit of maglite.
  • The lights are on, but you're not home
    your mind is not your own
    your whiskers twitch, your body shakes
    another hit is what it takes

    Whoa, you like to think that you're immune to the stuff, oh yeah
    it's closer to the truth to say you can't get enough,
    you know you're gonna have to face it, you're addicted to cheese^w light

  • ... Mice get addicted to a random stimuli that causes the pleasure centers in the brain to release their happy chemicals. Therefore, mice like to feel good. OMG!!!!

  • Reminds me of a study done long ago, when calves were kept in small pens in the dark to make 'white' veal. Whilst many people found this rather shocking, supporters claimed that it was OK since the calves 'did not know better'.

    The researchers rigged up a light with a time switch, and a button that the calves could press to turn the light back on when it automatically switched off after a few minutes. The calves quickly learned to switch the lights on, and showed a marked preference for them staying on.

    Cou

    • They're not addicted to seeing light, they'll be addicted to having light shined through a fiber-optic cable to a particular point of their brain where researchers have embedded light-sensitive proteins. Sizable difference.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Renraku ( 518261 )

      Of course animals prefer to be in the element that suits them.

      Our #1 method of detecting predators is by sight. If we're in the dark, its no longer the #1. We must rely on hearing, smell, touch, etc. And most likely if you smell the predator, as a human, you're about to become lunch.

      Evolution favored people that feared and respected the dark.

  • So They've Made... (Score:5, Funny)

    by camperdave ( 969942 ) on Thursday March 19, 2009 @05:14PM (#27262447) Journal
    So, what you're saying is that scientists have developed optical mice?
  • "Sweet photons. I don't know if you're waves or particles, but you go down smooth!"

    (citation [wikiquote.org])
  • Mouse enters reward chamber, and grimaces: "what is this slow crap?? I want UV! and it better be shorter than 300nm or I'm outta here!!"

    It's always the same. They get you hooked with the primo stuff and then slowly start feeding you water.

    • Mouse enters reward chamber, and grimaces: "what is this slow crap?? I want UV! and it better be shorter than 300nm or I'm outta here!!"

      One mouse meets another: I've got some UV bulbs, let's get high!
      The other mouse: Man, UV is for kids, this X-ray tube rulz!

  • Haven't they already done experiments in the past where electrodes implanted in the brain can be used to stimulate sensations? If so, then there was no need to get clever with the proteins - put the electrodes in place, and then trigger them when the mice enter the lighted room. That seems more straightforward than adding photoreactive proteins that may have other unknown side-effects. But, then, me != biologist.

  • Coming to the next version of WoW...reward based rewards. When you complete your quest to collect 17 butt plugs of doom or whatever, the screen will flash in a precise way, leaving the player high and content.

    We know random reward systems in games are as addictive as those in real life (eg. slot machines), but we can take it to the next level and introduce physical rewards.

  • The cop approaches the motionless car as the driver stares ahead at the traffic light. "I pulled you over, Sir, because you just sat and stared at the green light" I'm sorry officer, I must have been in a mouse trance....I thought I was at a Pink Floyd Concert with babes that want me for my shiny aura of mice light. "Do you have any illegal light or other opened illumination paraphernalia I need to know about? I better not find any any open radiation or phosphorescence.....and sir turn off those h

  • Finally, sailing ships can resolve their stowaway rat problems simply by strapping freakin' lasers to the sharks' heads!

  • Tanning delegalized. Everyone not wearing a sunscreen will be found guilty of drug posession.

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