The
New York Times article, “Brain Shape Linked to Cocaine
Addiction”, by Douglas Quenqua, gives a brief insight into a
new study, published by the journal Biological Psychiatry, that is linking drug
addiction, in this case cocaine, to the size of one’s brains. Scientists have
come to discover that different regions of the brain control varying actions or
emotions, such as language or memory. One such region, or the frontal lobe, is
said to affect a person’s self-control. In the study, patients that were
addicted or have used the drug before were all tested with brain scans and
personality tests. Through this, the researchers were able to find that addicted
persons had a small frontal lobe, while sporadic users had a larger one. A
smaller lobe would mean that a person would have less control, and thus, would
be more prone to addiction. The researchers find this fact to
be very interesting, for it reinforces, “…the idea, now popular
among addiction experts, that addiction depends less on character and more on biological
makeup.” Researchers also believe that differing brain shapes existed before
the drug use. This fact would better enhance the drug abusers hope that
addiction is based on, “…what type of brain you have.”
This
study and its corresponding article were very interesting to read. It makes
sense that there must be some sort of biological factor that causes some people
to be more susceptible to addictions, while others less so, but still I found
the study to be rather ridiculous. The article is important to personal life
and humanity, for it shows the bounds people are willing to go to blame nature
for their actions. People in developed worlds know the dangers of drugs, for it
has been taught to them since a very young age. Therefore, the fact that
someone would go out and even risk becoming addicted is ridiculous. In the
article, it said that the study was disproving the Nancy Reagan belief of
drugs, which is that a person must “say no or one day or another you will get
addicted.” This, however, is somewhat still accurate, for a person, even with a
smaller frontal lobe, cannot become addicted to cocaine in one day.
I,
overall, found the article to be very interesting. I was disappointed that it
did not go into more details; instead, the article was quite short. It would
have been an even better article had more statistics been shown, for it would
have been informative to see if some addicted persons had larger lobes, or if
some persons not addicted to the drug had smaller lobes.
I thought that Mary did a very good job with her review of the article, "Brain Shape Linked to Cocaine Addiction." She gave a good summary of this article and helped me to better understand the steps that went into this research. She explained every aspect of the experiment and the outcome, which gave me a good understanding of this research. Mary also included a very good quote. Quotes give first hand accounts, and give the article support and add to the ethos, or appeal to ethics, within her review. Finally, Mary's review was very well written and easy to follow. She used very good punctuation and her language was spot on, making her review very easy to read.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Mary did a very goof job with reviewing this article, there are a few places where she could have improved. I think Mary could have given a few names of researchers and scientists involved with this experiment, as well as the institutions where it was preformed. This would have added to the credibility of her review. I also think Mary could have done a better job of explaining how this will effect the world, since she really only gave her personal opinion of the matter, and did not go into much detail about the long term effects of this issue.
Overall, I think Mary did a very good job with this article review. I was amazed that addiction can actually be caused by the size of a part of someone's brain. This shows that everyone must be careful not to use drugs, since they can have devastating effects.
I read Mary’s review of the article “Brain Shape Linked to Cocaine Addiction”. She did a great job reviewing the article. One aspect of her review that I thought was well done was her summary. She did a great job explaining the main points of the article and did not leave any key information out. In addition, I liked how Mary used quotes in her review. Most people do not do that but I think that it adds credibility to her review. It helped provide information that the reader knew was true. A third and final aspect of Mary’s review that I thought was well done was her paragraph explaining how this affects people. She went into a lot of detail and explained her own thoughts on the article, which I found very interesting.
ReplyDeleteWhile Mary did a great job on her review there were some areas for improvement. For example, although Mary included a lot of the key details of the article she did not mention any of the researchers or scientists who were working on the study. I think it would have been beneficial if she included this information. In addition, in the article there was a link to a brief summary of the study which Mary could have read and included in her review. I think that would have given more information about the context and extent of the study.
I learned many interesting things from reading Mary’s review. For example, I had no idea that addiction could be caused by the size of certain areas of the brain. This shows that people can’t know how addicted to drugs they could become. In addition, people need to be careful because they can still become addicted to drugs regardless of their brain size.
Mary’s review of “Brain Shape Linked to Cocaine Addiction.” was very well written. In her review, she gave a very good summary of the article and included a lot of information about how some people are more prone to cocaine addiction due to smaller size of their frontal lobe. She clearly displays what researchers found in regards to the frontal lobe and how it affects self-control. She did a great job incorporating quotes in her review, as they validate her review and add to her argument. Additionally, Mary did well on summarizing the article and avoiding clutter and too much detail. Her review encompassed the entire article yet she presented the information in a much more concise manner. She also did a great job critiquing the article, as she gave a very clear opinion on what she thought of the study.
ReplyDeleteAlthough these were several positive components to her review, there were a few things that I thought were missing from her article review. I think she could have elaborated on the science behind the study and how the researchers figured out that the frontal lobe oversees self-control. I would have also liked to see more information about where the review was conducted and by whom it was conducted. I also think she could have included more information about the impact this research can have on addicts and helping them recover, as even if some are more prone, these individuals are still putting their lives at risk.
I learned a lot from reading Mary’s review, and found it very interesting. I was surprised to learn that addiction is caused by certain areas of the brain. I always considered it to be a choice, not a biological inclination.
I greatly enjoyed reading Mary’s review of the article, “Brain Shape Linked to Cocaine Addiction.” I appreciated how she first mentioned the scientific background of the idea that the frontal lobe affects a person’s self-control, like how other parts affect such things as memory and language. It was also interesting to learn how this idea connects with the title of the article, considering it appears that the size of the frontal lobe influences a person’s chance of addiction: addicts had smaller lobes. Also, it was important to include that the differing brain shapes existed before the drug use, to identify that the size of the frontal lobe was the cause and not the effect.
ReplyDeleteThere were a couple of problems I found with Mary’s review. One being that I would have liked to learn more about the study, like the actual scientist(s) who conducted the study and how exactly it was performed. Also, I believe Mary’s comment of how people are willing to blame nature for their actions is a little far fetched, considering the study was performed for research purposes rather than to make excuses, and drug addiction, regardless of why the person started to abuse drugs, is an overwhelmingly mental attraction to the drug that is extremely hard for addicts to control.
Overall, I enjoyed learning about how addiction is connected to biology and, specifically, the brain. With this, further research may help to reduce natural drug addiction, to help addicts overcome their temptations. Also, research like this can help determine a person’s predetermined addictive qualities, like how alcoholism can be tracked through generations in a family. In general, this study and lead to further research to discover the inner workings of the brain and help discover and overcome addictions.
Maddy Foley
ReplyDeleteComment 12
2.14.13
I read Mary Cain’s review of the article “Brain Shape Linked to Cocaine Addiction.” The reviewer did a few things very well when reviewing this article. Firstly Mary describes the structure of the brain, prior to linking it to the main theme of the article; the cocaine addiction. She describes the brain as being made of several different regions that control varying actions or emotions, such as language and memory. Secondly, Mary describes the link between brain size and cocaine addiction very well. She describes how, through recent studies, scientists have found that a smaller frontal lobe in the brain, the area that controls self-control, is more common in people who are addicted to cocaine. Thirdly, I thought Mary did a good job at critiquing this article. While the article provides evidence that biological make-up may be the cause for addiction to drugs, that should not diminish the fact that a lot of drug addictions are based on character flaws and personal experiences.
I think the reviewer could have improved this article by elaborating on the scientific experiment a bit more by including the scientists involved, the location of the experiment and the procedure of the experiment. This would add a better understanding of the process. I also think this review could be improved by adding how this experiment may change approaches to drug rehabilitation. Since rehab centers are often aimed at addressing the moral and character flaws of a person, can they now be focused more on the biological factors of drug addiction? Or maybe medicinal treatments can be produced?
One thing I learnt from reading this article, is that problems are often more complex then they appear. Several elements may contribute to drug addiction, as proved through the discovery of the link between cocaine addiction and brain size. This idea could probably be applied to a diverse range of physical and mental diseases.
The reviewer did an excellent job on “Brain Shape linked to Cocaine Addiction”. One really good point made in the article was the different parts of the brain, the article specifically talking about the frontal lobe. The reviewer then went on to explain how the size of the frontal lobe affects the use of cocaine. The frontal lobe of the brain as explained by the reviewer deals with self-control. Mary pointed out another good point when she explained that this study suggests people with a larger frontal lobe are less susceptible to cocaine addiction than people with a small frontal lobe. A final argument made by Mary was the ridiculousness of this article. It is true that people cannot become addicted to cocaine overnight. This study is basically enabling people to see if they have a larger frontal lobe that can enable them to use cocaine without becoming addicted.
ReplyDeleteSomething the article could have improved on was the reason why having a larger frontal lobe would make someone less susceptible to addiction. Another thing that could have been added was the scientist who conducted this experiment and why they would think to do such a controversial study about cocaine addiction and the size of the brain’s frontal lobe.
Overall, this article was very well written and it is amazing how just the size of a part of your brain can make you more easily addicted or give you more self-control.
Brain Shape Linked to Cocaine Addiction, presented by Mary Cain
ReplyDeleteThe New York Times article, “Brain Shape Linked to Cocaine Addiction”, by Douglas Quenqua, gives a brief description into a new study, published by the journal Biological Psychiatry, which is linking drug addiction, in this case cocaine, to the size of one’s brains. Scientists have known that different regions of the brain contribute to different emotions and reactions. However, in one specific region, the frontal lobe is said to affect a person’s self-control. In this research, patients that were addicted or have used the drug before were all tested with brain scans and personality tests. Through this experiment, the scientists were able to find that addicted persons had a small frontal lobe. A smaller lobe would contribute to the decrease of self-control, and therefore the person would be more prone to addiction. The scientists find this fact to be very interesting, for it reinforces, “…the idea, now popular among addiction experts, that addiction depends less on character and more on biological makeup.”
I think this article by Mary was very well written and described a possible reason for the reasoning and the problems that some people encounter. However, I think this article gives a reason for a addict to say that it is not their fault that they have a different frontal lobe. I think that whatever the shape is, the person should be responsible for what they do. I think the article should describe the age, gender,etc. of the people they were researching in order to better explain the research that was conducted.
I think this article review was very well presented and was easily understood by the reader. The research seems credible and brings about a biological reason for the choices some people make. The article explains one possible reason for a problem of addiction that many people have, especially with drugs.