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Your Brain on Drugs
(example speech)
This is your brain ` This is drugs ` and this is your brain on drugs… at least according to this old,
outdated 80s video. Unlike this video whose main goal is to scare you away from controlled
substances, I’m gonna tell you about the effects of these drugs and why they make you feel the
way they feel. ` This presentation is purely informational, I am not liable for anything that
happens because of it. Disclaimer: please don’t do drugs anyway.
` First up is alcohol. ` Ingestion of alcohol suppresses glutamate transmission used by excitatory
neurons, which are normally in charge of feelings of excitement, and enhances GABA
transmission used by inhibitory neurons, which are normally in charge of organising and
inhibiting excitement caused by excitatory neurons. ` Lack of glutamate causes slow information
processing, and can make it difficult for smaller signals to get through, so the information
perceived is drastically reduced, causing short term memory and sensory loss. On the other
hand, excess of GABA enhances the clarity of your thoughts, so much that any outside activity
around you gets duller. ` Symptoms of being drunk or under the influence of alcohol include
emotional instability, ` loss of coordination, ` trouble making judgement calls, ` memory or
sensory loss including impaired vision and ` loss of balance, as well as ` feelings of tiredness.
` Next, we got cannabis. Cannabis is also a depressant, and is the most commonly used drug in
North america. ` Cannabis molecules are similar to those found in your brain already, called
cannabinoids. Smoking increases cannabinoids levels drastically higher than your natural body
levels, and the chemical THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) ` resembles the natural transmitter
anandamide, which functions as a binding for cannabinoid receptors in the brain and body,
producing a sense of happiness that people call the “bliss molecule”. ` Excess of cannabinoids
enhances your imagination, perception, and thoughts, similar to alcohol. Increase of
cannabinoids can also increase dopamine and norepinephrine, which causes the euphoric
feeling and reduced sensations of pain, but may also cause anxiety. ` THC disrupts the
cannabinoid receptors in the parts of your brain that manage short term memory, learning
process, coordination, movement control, and cognitive functions including the mental
processes that allow you to receive, select, store, transform, develop, and recover information
received from external stimuli.
` Next, we have psilocybin. This one is a hallucinogen, and is the main component in a certain
recreational drug that I'm not allowed to talk about and that I had to change my presentation for
last minute. When psilocybin comes into contact with strong alkaline or acidic conditions such
as your stomach, ` it gets dephosphorylated, a process known as hydrolysis. This creates
psilocin, which increases production of serotonin but can also bind to serotonin receptors due to
their similar structure. ` These receptors can be found in the hippocampus and anterior
cingulate cortex which are responsible for imagination and dreaming ` which makes you feel like
your consciousness is expanding, so your brain gets overwhelmed by the extra stimulation and
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makes you perceive things that aren’t actually there, known as hallucinations. These can be
visual, auditory, kinesthetic, etc. and usually hallucinations last for 3-8 hours at a time but can
feel longer or shorter since the drug disrupts your perception of time.
` Next, we have Adderall or Cynthia's favourite. This one is a stimulant, and its full name is
Amphetamine Salts. As you can probably tell by the name, it is a close relative to another
certain recreational drug that I am not allowed to talk about. However, while this drug was
originally developed to treat ADHD, now people commonly use it as a study enhancer. Adderall
targets the neuroreceptors in your central nervous system and increases production of serotonin
and dopamine which are responsible for making you feel happy. Since ADHD was found caused
by dysfunctional dopamine release making the brain want to seek external stimulants to make
up for the lack of dopamine, taking adderall can increase dopamine levels and turn
overstimulation into a normal amount of stimulation, hence why it is said to treat ADHD.
However, while Adderall also increases norepinephrine which increases alertness, it does not
work for non ADHD havers, as studies have shown that the only increase in productivity or
cognitive functions were due to the placebo effect. Long term usage of adderall leads to the
brain being unable to naturally produce dopamine or serotonin, so you need to take more to get
the same effect which leads to addiction. Patients of adderall abuse have reported being unable
to feel happiness or pleasure without a chemical stimulant.
` Last but least, we have Caffeine. When you stay up late like I did when I wrote this shadspeak,
mitochondria continue to produce atp, and since the brain uses atp when awake, it causes
adenosine to accumulate. Adenosine is a hormone that makes you feel drowsy, so you feel
extremely exhausted after pulling an all-nighter. Caffeine blocks adenosine receptors in the
brain, so you feel awake for the time being but also causes adenosine buildup at an even higher
rate, leading to eventual extreme exhaustion once it wears off. So don’t drink too much caffeine,
` even if you have 80 pages of a design project to do.
` Thanks for listening and please don’t do drugs!!!!!