Studies show that the cerebellum is crucial to understanding vulnerability to drug addiction
These studies are based on a series of works published over the last two years by the research group Addiction and Neuroplasticity at the Universitat Jaume I, directed by the lecturer of the Area of Psychobiology at the UJI, which has had the collaboration of researchers from European, Mexican and North American universities. The most relevant, according to Miquel, is that the studies show that changes in the cerebellum "only occur in those subjects who appear to be especially vulnerable to the effect of drugs." For a long time, "we have verified that the cerebellum responds in a very potent way to the effect of cocaine, to the point of changing the mechanisms of plasticity," states Miquel, who is also coordinator of the master's degree in Research in Brain and Behaviour. Consequently, the cerebellum is a region of the brain relevant to understanding and designing future treatments for drug addiction. "There is progress in describing the neuronal cir...