Unit 3: Effect of Drugs on the Brain

Student Guide Lesson 1

1. What are the objectives?

 Create a mind map about all we have learned in neuroscience
 Contrast adolescent changes to brain development
 Explain why the teen brain is sensitive to drug use
 Describe different drugs and their effects
2. How does current drug use negatively progress over time?
 Initiation of substance abuse in teen years typically progresses from alcohol and tobacco use
to illegal substances at later ages
 The rapidly changing immature_ adolescent brain has differing sensitvity_ to drugs.
 Drug exposure in adolescence can lead to long term changes_ in brain and behavior
 Nicotine exposure, increasingly occurring as a result of e-cigarette use, may induce changes
that sensitize the teen brain to other drugs and prime it for future substances.

3. How do drugs affect the brain?

 Drugs are chemicals
 When someone puts chemicals in their body, either by smoking, injecting, inhaling, or eating
them, they disrupt the brain’s communication system and tamper with the way nerve cells
normally send, receive, and process information
 Different drugs – because of their chemical structure_ – work differently

4. How does dopamine cause addiction?

 Normal, non drug circumstances – the reward circuit responds to healthy, pleasurable
activities by releasing the neurotransmitter dopamine, which teaches other parts of the brain
to repeat those activities
 With drug use – drugs take control releasing large amounts of dopamine – first in response
to the drug but later mainly in response to other cues associated_ with the drug
 The brain remembers this feeling and sends out an intense motivation_ to seek and use the
drug again
 Dopamine reinforces the desire to use drugs.

5. Define what a drug is.

Drugs are any substance that alter how the brain or body works

U3L1 Student Guide 1

 6. How do drugs work in the brain?
 There are hundreds_ of ways drugs work in the brain
 Imitating or preventing the brain’s natural chemical messengers
 Addictive_ drugs affect the brain’s reward center

7. How do different drugs have different effects?

 Drugs that affect behavior do so by getting into the brain, and affecting the normal process of
transmission
 Drugs vary significantly regarding the impact they have on the brain
 In fact, drugs are classified based upon their physiological impact on the brain and body
 They can slow_ the brain down or speed things up, make you feel sleepy, anxious, euphoric,
dizzy, and more
8. Fill in the table below.

Administration Route Description Example

Inhalation Into the lungs Smoking

Injection Intramuscular – Into the Steroids

muscles Heroin, Cocaine, prescription
opioids
Intravenous – Into the veins Heroin

Subcutaneous – under the

skin

Oral By mouth Pills, tablets

Absorption Transdermal – absorbed into Patch or paste

bloodstream for long,
continuous delivery Eyedrops, nasal
decongestant, powder, lotion,
ointment

Topical – effect occurs at the

site it is applied

U3L1 Student Guide 2

 9. What is the summary?
 The teen brain is still developing
 Drugs_ can interfere with proper brain development
 Different drugs and routes of administration have different effects_ on the brain
 Some drugs affect the regions_ of the brain responsible for new learning
 Addiction_ may develop faster in teens

U3L1 Student Guide 3