镜像神经在药物心理渴求中的作用及机制

心理渴求是物质依赖者希望重新感受神经活性药物效应的渴望,其神经机制的早期影像研究,主要集中在前额皮质和奖赏中枢.镜像神经是新近发现的位于动作脑区,能理解、分析所观察动作的目的和性质,并通过内隐模拟,产生直接映射式的情绪和认知的神经.最新的研究发现尼古丁成瘾者在相关线索的刺激下,其镜像神经也能被激活.本研究旨在探索镜像神经参与相关线索下心理渴求形成的机制,为发展更可靠的依赖行为的生物学标记提供另一个重要目标,帮助人们更好地理解药物渴求形成的神经生物学基础与过程.

The Role and Mechanism of Mirror Neuro System in the Forming Process of Drug Cue-induced Craving

Earlier image research on the craving of drug dependence, focused on the prefrontal cortex and reward circuits. The Mirror Neuron System (MNS) was recently discovered, located in the action planning regions of the brain and is known to be involved in the evolution and development of multiple psychological abilities in humans. MNS helps with understanding and analysis of the objective and nature of the observing action and then forms embody emotion and cognition. The most recent research study found that smoking cues activate the action planning regions in the smoker’s brains, which (are known to) overlap the MNS area in humans. The drug dependent individual can form a direct craving through the functioning of, simulation and understanding of MNS. Our current study focus on exploring the mechanism of MNS involved in the forming process of cue-induced craving. The result may offer another target for developing a reliable biomarker of dependence, which could help us to better understand the neuro-biological basis of the cue-induced craving-forming process