True or False: Addiction causes changes in brain reward systems, motivation, cognition, and neural circuitry.

True or False: Addiction causes changes in brain reward systems, motivation, cognition, and neural circuitry.

• A. True
• B. False
• C. Addiction causes changes in brain reward systems, motivation, cognition, and neural circuitry.
• D. It has no effect on neural circuitry.

Answer: (C)

Addiction involves lasting changes across multiple brain systems, not just mood or behavior. Repeated drug use reshapes the brain’s reward circuitry—basically the dopamine pathway from the ventral tegmental area to the nucleus accumbens—so rewards are processed differently and drug seeking becomes more reinforcing. Motivation is also altered: cues linked to the drug gain exaggerated importance and trigger strong craving, a phenomenon called incentive salience. Cognitive functions suffer as the prefrontal cortex and its networks become less able to exert top-down control, leading to poorer decision making, planning, and impulse control. These changes don’t occur in isolation; they rewire connected circuits involving memory, attention, and control, contributing to relapse risk. So the statement is true: addiction causes changes in brain reward systems, motivation, cognition, and neural circuitry.

Addiction involves lasting changes across multiple brain systems, not just mood or behavior. Repeated drug use reshapes the brain’s reward circuitry—basically the dopamine pathway from the ventral tegmental area to the nucleus accumbens—so rewards are processed differently and drug seeking becomes more reinforcing. Motivation is also altered: cues linked to the drug gain exaggerated importance and trigger strong craving, a phenomenon called incentive salience. Cognitive functions suffer as the prefrontal cortex and its networks become less able to exert top-down control, leading to poorer decision making, planning, and impulse control. These changes don’t occur in isolation; they rewire connected circuits involving memory, attention, and control, contributing to relapse risk. So the statement is true: addiction causes changes in brain reward systems, motivation, cognition, and neural circuitry.