Question: What made you so interested In drug addictions ???

David Davila answered on 18 Jun 2014:

The cool thing about the reward pathway is that it’s a part of the brain we can study with animals, so we can really look at cells shooting electrical signals in the brain, but it’s linked to complicated and interesting parts of our lives! Every time we eat a chocolate bar, or laugh, or play games, we’re activating the same areas of the brain that are activated with cocaine (but definitely not as strongly!)

Drug addiction specifically is interesting because a lot of people don’t actually believe it’s a biology problem. People sometimes think that addicts just aren’t “strong” enough or have enough “willpower”. Science can show how the wiring in your brain is what is causing behaviours like addiction, and how people need to be more understanding of the challenges they face.