Ramirez is an associate professor of psychological and brain sciences at Boston University. When philosophers imagined the ship of Theseus, they asked: Can a vessel that has all its planks replaced ...

Addiction has causes that are neurobiological, psychological and structural. Treating these drivers is as important as ...

Addiction is one of the most intensely studied conditions in modern medicine, yet even with high‑resolution brain scans and genetic tools, scientists still cannot fully explain why some people get ...

Dopamine—a neurotransmitter responsible for influencing motivation, pleasure, mood and learning in the brain—has experienced a bit of fame in recent years, acting as a sort of buzzword to describe a ...

New research shows chronic alcohol use rewires gene activity in human brain regions that control reward and decision-making, ...

Chronic alcohol consumption profoundly alters gene expression in key brain regions involved in reward, impulse control, and ...

Internet addition effects the brain in the same way as alcohol, and cocaine addiction, according to a new study. Researchers in China scanned the brains of 17 adolescents diagnosed with “internet ...

For decades, my colleagues and I advanced the premise that early substance use—nicotine, alcohol, or cannabis (or other addicting drugs)—interferes with critical maturation stages, particularly ...

In my previous post, I promised this post would describe the minority of users whose lives are taken over by cannabis. Although less common, given how many people begin using cannabis during ...