Addiction + Exploding Brains (But really, interesting thought)

So anyhow, I meant to make a thread about this a LONG TIME AGO.

A study done in 2007 comprised of patients who suffered from strokes in various regions of the brain were taken (this, I assume, invovled ischemic and hemmorhagic strokes.).


So, the purpose of the study was to see if strokes to the INSULA in the brain (tucked right behind the sylvian fissure in the brain, that sort of horizontal crease that divides the temporal lobe from the rest of the brain.) would have an impact upon ADDICTION.


So, this study actually did find that damage to the insula caused cessation of smoking. Whereas other kinds of strokes did not cause cessation.


It is possible that this may be the 'cause' of addiction...


OR, perhaps, the removal of it could lead to a potential cure for addiction ;p

(This was prominently seen in the right insula, the left did, however, have more than 50% quit! Much higher than the groups of which didn't suffer insula stroke damage.)

DISCUSS (I have my own opinions, but I won't get involved, this is a discussion for you guys =p)


-Should this be a means for removing addiction in people who didn't respond to 'conventional' means?

-etc.

 

Me bringing up a study... and wanting to see what people thought of it @_@;

 

I'm not going to trust people that well to cure addiction by removing a piece of my brain. It's in my head incased in a protected bone shell for a reason. I am addicted to smoking cigs too so I do have an opinion on this.

 

These are valuble opinions =3

And +1000.

Part of me feels that taking an invasive approach is a bit of a step into the realm of being a 'brain butcher' opposed to taking a less... invasive route to it.

Afterall, the insula most likely plays more importaint roles than just addiction. But the study somewhat dodged the questions of other neuropsychological results. Which is a but unnerving. "Less addiction!" But then my question is, at what cost?

 

You know I'd rather face the idea and issues of addiction then possible (infinite unknown possibilities) of damage removing part of the brain could do to you. Mental disorders? Less capacity for your brain? You are destroying cells and nerves when you cut up the brain so....
Besides medical science and science in general still knows very little about the brain... Not gonna commit when we don't know wtf we're doing either.

 

You know, to do research, people need to be willing to take risks. Without that, things would take a lot longer to accomplish. However, I do believe that we aren't ready for doing these kinds of things to our own brains yet. Maybe when technology gets more advanced and there is less risk of human error involved (as in when we start getting robots to do that kind of this with 99.9% precision) it might be able to be done.

On the other hand, if people are willing to take the risk to get rid of their addictions, then so be it. It was their fault it they got addicted in the first place, so why not become a research subject? Muahahaha.

I don't really know all that much about the implications of brain surgeries or errors that could happen within those surgeries, but it's common sense that you need it to live, and damaging it in any way can be devastating.

 

Research can be done safely now a days without risk of damage or life loss with technology today. The first mission of organized medical science and establishments (in my true belief) was to cure sickness and sustain life not modify it. When you start to modify life and it becomes un natural that is when it starts to bug me. No It is a person's own fault if they become addicted but ofc if they really want to they can stop the addiction. I however won't be a test subject for anything and don't care if some people think that an addicted person should be one. If they want to volunteer then sure. It's their funeral and loss of rights.

 

Well you can live if everything is left relatively intact minus the brainstem. Now that goody bit of CNS is integral for survival.

 

In the future, it could become more about modifying lives (with a greater affect than it can now) than curing diseases. Technology will probably reach that point in the near future too, we aren't that far off. I really don't know about modifying the brain itself though. That is indeed when things start to get messy.

Not so much about living, but about living as a normal person. Would you still?

 

If ONLY the brainstem was left intact?

Lmfao... oh goodness.... no... no xD!

You'd lack any means of 'normal'... you're meatsuit would be fine though... laying there... just fine....

 

Oh how I would love to be a vegetable for the rest of my life Q_Q

 

That is where technology is going,... To modify life but it's against what I think is natural. I've got a complex opinion about this but this is why I won't have by body modified at all no matter what it may be. I'm mortal and I accept that I won't use modern science to prolong or help me survive longer then I'm supposed too.
Same reason why I absolutely am disgusted at people who get major body modifications like 10+ piercings the corset piercing etc... Nasty shit. It's almost sub-human to me. I have no issues with people who get piercings but when they go overboard... It's disgusting and a turn off if you're a woman that's for damn sure.

 

This is personally my line of interests.

Disease fighting is wonderful, honestly, and I love to help others through it. But I myself AM interested in breaking the biological-machine barrier... to essentially create 'deus ex' I guess one could hash it out to be. I've been interested in this for YEARS now... requires a lot of education, and I may even need to do a PhD after all my schooling thus far to achieve it, but I am personally interested in this region of neurosurgery/neuroscience/neurology or whatever other neuro thing one wants to clip onto it XD

 

Yeah, I don't think many people want to live forever. It would probably get boring after awhile, and after 100 years of age you'd probably be just sitting there drooling for the rest of your life anyway.

Not only could they modify life like that, but they could modify life before it is even created, by 'genetically enhancing' it I guess you could say, modifying the very blueprints by which we are made. Either of them seem pretty cool, but the reply to Xal still stands.

 

Genetically enhancing bores me =p it cannot change my life.

Although, overall, it is more because I made a promise to someone... and that is why I will pursue this, I may not fail.


And if taken care of properly it can be faaaaar longer than 100 years.

But, oho, that is a little deep for gamez -geisha fan-

 

I disagree humans are obsessed with power and fear death. These two things make people bitter and for the most part obsessed with wealth and fame either to achieve some sort of false immortality or to prolong it. I don't fear dying and so I don't need power or wealth. It's material.

 

Even if you could live for far longer than 100 years, would it really be worth it? You're going to die sometime anyway, I just don't think it would be. Plus, we can start talking about overpopulation of the Earth, we'd have to find a new place to live if it got to that point, too. ;( We'd need a very good food + clean water supply to feed so many people.

But of course.. this is all hypothetical.. who knows what other advances could be made to cope with overpopulation and food/water supply problems. xD

I'm not talking about young people really, most of us are afraid of death at this point in our lives, we think that it will benefit us to live longer than anticipated by average lifespan. Older people are the ones that say they don't want to live forever because they experience firsthand how it is to be like that. Most of them would rather die than live for longer than they already have.

 

you're being ignorant, wait till you hit the 60's and get out of those 4 walls and start experiencing how good real life is you'll think: "wow I waste my life playing an online game and didn't knew how cool was life" and you'll want to live longer.

 

I don't stay in my house all the time why thank you. I know many people who accept they will die in their 60's and instead of saying "I wish I could live longer" they say "I had a good life" there's many people who die young and other die before they are born. Once you accept you WILL die someday you'll understand.

Oh and @ Dementa and the overpopulation / food supply
Soylent Green - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Enjoy rofl

 

That depends....your comment isn't ignorant but shallow. Happiness is what really matters. Life is about many things. It's an experience. You can't be playing online games your whole life unless you're really settled.