Pubdate: Mon, 22 Aug 2016
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2016 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Dean Burnett
Note: Dean Burnett is a neuroscientist who teaches at Cardiff 
University. He is the author of "Idiot Brain: What Your Head Is Really Up To."

RETURN OF THE 'FRIED EGG' PSA

In 1987, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America aired a public 
service announcement that went on to become a classic of modern pop 
culture. It likened an egg to "your brain" and a hot pan to "drugs." 
The egg was then fried in the pan, and the viewer was informed that 
"this is your brain on drugs." The ad concluded: "Any questions?" 
Presumably this was meant to be rhetorical, but now the ad is back in 
a revamped form, which includes children asking questions about 
drugs. "Mom, Dad, did you ever try drugs?" asks one child.

I, for one, have questions about the egg-based metaphor itself. 
Because while effectively conveying the message that drugs are bad, 
which was no doubt the intention of the ad, it is crude, misleading 
and even potentially stigmatizing.

For starters, there's no known drug that affects every part of the 
brain at once, frying or scrambling its proteins. Such a drug would 
be instantly lethal. It's unlikely that anyone would take the 
comparison that seriously, but the important thing to remember is 
that drugs don't instantly damage or destroy the brain - they infiltrate it.

Here's an exceedingly brief lesson in how the brain works: All 
activity is based on signals passed along and between neurons. 
Neurons signal each other using chemicals known as neurotransmitters, 
which travel from one cell to the next across the synapses.

Drugs can mimic these neurotransmitters, amplifying their effects. 
They interact with neurological systems that govern pleasure and 
reward sensations, and they can do this because the brain recognizes 
them at a molecular level.

What this all means is that drugs induce activity in the brain where 
there shouldn't be any. Some drugs, like cocaine, mimic the 
neurotransmitter dopamine, leading to increased focus and energy and 
to pleasure in the mesolimbic reward pathway. Other drugs, like 
heroin, induce activity in areas of the brain that suppress pain and 
cause euphoria. Marijuana acts on cannabinoid receptors in the 
regions that cause relaxation and a pleasant buzz, as well as 
interfering with memory.

The whole egg-in-a-fryingpan metaphor is, then, completely 
inaccurate. As if that weren't bad enough, it encourages the belief 
that anyone who uses drugs, in any capacity, is reckless, thoughtless 
and just plain stupid. Only an idiot would consume a substance that dangerous.

So what would be an accurate metaphor?

Since drugs alter existing levels of activity in the brain, that 
takes a toll on cells over time, exhausting and degrading them. You 
could say that the brain is like a car engine and drugs are the gas 
pedal. It's exciting and exhilarating to step on the gas - at least 
for a while. But overuse will make the engine splutter and smoke, and 
there's a much greater risk of doing damage to yourself at high speeds.

That metaphor doesn't quite cut it, though. The brain, a very 
flexible organ, also adapts to drug-induced activity. For example, 
when heroin increases activity in the pain-suppression regions of the 
brain, the brain also increases sensitivity to pain, bringing things 
back into balance. It gets so that the brain needs regular hits of 
the drug to maintain normal functioning. Hence, tolerance and 
addiction, where users have to constantly increase the dose to 
achieve the same effect.

Rather than an egg, perhaps the brain is like a generator, and drugs 
are the devices and appliances that need power. The more there are, 
the more the generator needs to increase its output. Then more 
appliances are added, so more power is needed, and you get an 
evermore-demanding feedback loop.

What's worse is that drugs can make the brain turn on itself, with 
some parts trying to limit the effects of the drugs, while the more 
pleasure-focused areas actually interfere with the higher-reasoning 
centers. That gives users a warped sense of priorities that makes 
them value the drug above all else.

Maybe the brain is like a computer and drugs are malware, directing 
the computer's resources to its own ends despite the detriment to the 
whole system. So a more accurate metaphor for a brain on drugs would 
be a high-speed, powergenerating, malware-infecting car. Obviously, 
such a thing doesn't exist.

The truth is, the effects of drugs on the brain are very complex and 
vary from person to person. To deal with drugs and the issues they 
cause in society, you need an approach that acknowledges this 
inherent complexity and takes into account the various biological, 
psychological and sociological factors that perpetuate their use. 
Fried eggs are delicious, but they aren't subtle.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom