Could a wit scan save teenagers from a " waste youth " of drug use and insult ? This ensemble of neuroscientists and psychologists think it ’s possible .
The international team of researchers believe they will be able to efficaciously predict an adolescent ’s drug economic consumption problems before it even starts , all by simply look at MRI scans of their brain activity . Their study was latterly published in the journalNature Communications .
The researchers ' old employment study 1,000 14 - yr - olds to see if impulsiveness and other “ novelty quest ” personality traits were associated with future economic consumption of unpaid drugs . They ask them to complete behavioral tests that look for these traits and made anticipation of whether they would go on to take drugs base on certain personality traits . Two age subsequently , they get up with them to see if they had taken drugs . The subject field debate they could accurately predict when two - thirds of the 14 - twelvemonth - old would go on to shout drug within those two years .
In the novel sketch , they ask 144 adolescents in Europe to nail questionnaire and behavioral tests to see how brainish , unresolved to new experiences , and “ novelty seeking ” they were . The neuroscientists wanted to see how this line up with tomography of their brain action while processing reward , whether it be the high school of gain or the high of a drug .
The participants were placed under an MRI digital scanner while they were made to run a “ Monetary Incentive Delay Task . ” This test shows players how many point they stand up to win during the turn . This makes the players begin to anticipate future reward and , for most people , this makes the mental capacity ’s reward centers start to touch off up with bodily process .
Curiously , the stripling who expend drugs had a decreased amount of activeness in these wages centers when anticipating a reward . The study generator advise this could mean that either the drug stamp down their brainiac natural action or less brain natural action in the reinforcement center leads them to take drug .
In theory , this mean you could look for activity in these reward centers and foretell whether an adolescent is at risk of taking drugs in the stick to few years .
However , that is indeedin theory . The link between “ gaud seeking ” behavior and next drug - use is by no agency rock self-coloured and is probable to be make by a cocktail of biologic , psychological , societal , and ethnic factors . It also raises many questions of whether it ’s a case of just correlation or causing – a common theme among study on drug function and social behavior . Nevertheless , the researcher are optimistic about their findings so far .
“ This is just a first step toward something more useful , " Brian Knutson , a professor of psychology at Stanford University , explained in astatement . “Ultimately the goal – and maybe this is pie in the sky – is to do clinical diagnosis on private patients . "
