Word: rewarding
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...relevance. Threats, for example, are highly salient, which is why we instinctively try to get away from them. But so are food and sex because they help the individual and the species survive. Drugs of abuse capitalize on this ready-made programming. When exposed to drugs, our memory systems, reward circuits, decision-making skills and conditioning kick in--salience in overdrive--to create an all consuming pattern of uncontrollable craving. "Some people have a genetic predisposition to addiction," says Volkow. "But because it involves these basic brain functions, everyone will become an addict if sufficiently exposed to drugs or alcohol...
Another area of focus for researchers involves the brain's reward system, powered largely by the neurotransmitter dopamine. Investigators are looking specifically at the family of dopamine receptors that populate nerve cells and bind to the compound. The hope is that if you can dampen the effect of the brain chemical that carries the pleasurable signal, you can loosen the drug's hold...
...possible for more of the drug to enter and activate nerve cells. "Receptor density is thought to be an amplifier," says Frank Vocci, director of pharmacotherapies at NIDA. "[Chemically] blocking D3 interrupts an awful lot of the drugs' effects. It is probably the hottest target in modulating the reward system...
...perennial curses of bribery, corruption and lawlessness. These negative associations with Africa were much on the minds of people at the summit in Cape Town. "We are fighting an image problem," said Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese-born cell-phone magnate who has created a multi-million-dollar prize to reward good political governance in Africa. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, an ex-Finance Minister in Nigeria known for fighting corruption, likewise lamented that the private sector "still sees Africa as a financial basket case, which it's not ... We need to focus on what's going right...
...year-old brother David was put under pressure by Brown's opponents inside Labour to stand against Brown for the party leadership. The Harry Potter lookalike, then Secretary of State for Environment, resisted those siren calls and will now be working spells over foreign policy as his reward. The new Foreign Secretary is unlikely to charm many neocons. Skeptical about the war in Iraq, David Miliband also protested in Cabinet last year at the British handling of the conflagration in Lebanon...