Fall 9 Epigenetics and Gaming Addiction

-

        Dopamine is our bodies “feel good” chemical, that is produced as a reward our brain gives us when we do something it likes. Dopamine produced by gaming can trigger these excitatory effects, enticing us to play more, which can lead to addiction. 

        Even though dopamine is considered an excitatory neurotransmitter, the chemical messenger can encourage or discourage an action depending on the receptors present. There are 5 different dopamine receptors (D1-D5) that control things like attention, impulse control, decision making, learning, memory, and sleep. When dopamine is received by an excitatory receptor, we feel pleasure and want to continue the behavior. When it is received by an inhibitory receptor, it may negatively affect impulse control and decision making.

        Epigenetics can impact the production and regulation of dopamine, as well as dopamine transporter and receptor production.  Altering these proteins can lead to addictive behaviors.

1)   An underproduction of dopamine may cause individuals to seek out dopamine creating activities, such as gaming. Insufficient levels would encourage a person to keep playing to maintain or increase current levels.
 
2)   Dopamine transporters regulate dopamine levels in the cleft (space between transmitters and receptors), by taking excessive dopamine from the cleft, and putting it back into the transmitter it came from. If we produce too many of these transporters, there will not be enough dopamine in the cleft  remaining to satisfy our receivers on the other side. This could lead to addictive behavior in trying to produce enough dopamine to reach the receivers.
 
3)   Overproduction or underproduction of the five receptor types can impact how the body responds to dopamine levels, and therefor can increase addiction to certain activities.  Improperly made receptors may even see pleasure as pain, and vice versa, causing people to seek harmful experiences to feel good.

        Healthy activities, such as exercise, can be a positive substitute by maintaining dopamine production while encouraging the body to correct its epigenetic defects,  reducing the dependence on gaming.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ASU Week 1

-
 Do you feel you have a more malleable/growth mindset, or a fixed mindset?      I am not sure how to answer this. I am very fixed with some things, and malleable with others. I am not afraid to learn when it comes to things like science, although I can get particular about knowing all the rules or expectations, and sometimes get stuck. I can go to a foreign city, or in the middle of a jungle, and feel very comfortable in unfamiliar territory. If I am fixing a machine, I see it as a challenge and growth opportunity when I don't find the problem right away. In other areas I definitely have a fixed mindset. Language, for instance, has never been easy for me, and I resist learning. I took Spanish for 4 years and it did not "speak to me." I didn't like it at all. Now I hear people telling me how I need to learn Spanish and I get upset. I say things like, "There are 450 languages spoken in the U.S.. Am I to learn them all, or should everyone just learn English?" I...
Read more

Fall 4: Literature Review

-
Image
       The microbiome group will not be meeting as frequently this semester, creating gaps in my weekly reporting ability. One of my advisors suggested I supplement by doing a literature review as well. So, what is a literature review, why do we do them, and how?       In the attached video series it was described as this: Imagine going to a high school reunion and meeting up with a person you haven't seen in years. They might ask, "What have you been up to?" at which point you would provide the highlights of past years. "I moved to Arizona in 2010.  A few years later I invented post-it notes, and became rich overnight. Three minutes later I got married. We have been traveling the world, and just flew in from Belize to be here with you all today." Note that, while this brings the listener up to speed, this does not move forward with an idea of the future. A literature review uses multiple, credible sources, to explain the current status on a...
Read more

Week 5 Bacterial Symbiosis

-
Image
Presentation given by Richard Ricketts on the research paper “Emergent simplicity in microbial community assembly” Goldford et al. Science, 2018, 3;361(6401):469-474. doi: 10.1126/science.aat1168. Emergent simplicity in microbial community assembly | Science (sciencemag.org) The research attempts to understand the symbiosis between species of bacteria. If we were to imagine several types of bacteria all fighting over the same food supply, we might expect to see one species starve out the rest. What research has shown is that bacteria are able to feed off the metabolites of other bacteria, allowing all to thrive.   In a colony of a few hundred varieties, the feeding structure can get complex. This research attempts to isolate and determine which varieties can feed off each other in order to construct a mathematical model. With this knowledge we may be able to propagate and control a healthy microbiome. It could help illuminate  the root cause of some dysbioses, or potentially...
Read more