Question

Explain how drugs of abuse may act via the same substrate engaged by natural rewards. Please explain the answer as if the audience had never learned psychology.

Answer 1

The mesolimbic part of our brain is associated with natural reward circuit. Dopamine released from nucleus accumbens gives the pleasure feeling, this motivates those behavior to be repeated that gives pleasure. This is important for the sustenance of life as it motivates the behaviors of life saving activities as thirst and hunger to be repeated. The same dopamine of nucleus accumbens is associated with pleasure reward on taking drugs that motivates the behavior to be repeated. Thus, natural reward motivates drug abuse in a person.