Episode 4: The Neuroscience of Drug Abuse

The Neuroscience of Drug Abuse: This episode features AU Professor of Neuroscience Dr. Anthony Riley discussing his research on the neuroscience of drug abuse.  Drugs cause both positive and negative effects on the brain; drug use becomes problematic when negative effects overwhelm the brain’s ability to compensate.  Dr Riley discusses the policy challenges revealed by the neuroscience of addiction, including what he sees as one of the biggest problems—namely, relapse.  Riley, Davidson and Carle also discuss gene expression, adolescence, the microbiome, and other factors that affect likelihood of drug use escalation and therefore are important to public policy interventions.  More about Dr. Riley and his research can be found here https://www.american.edu/cas/faculty/alriley.cfm.