World
Neurons tell brain when to stop drinking
New York : It is possible to influence drinking behaviour by activating particular neurons in brain, suggests a new study.
The researchers earlier showed that alcohol consumption alters the physical structure and function of neurons in the dorsomedial striatum — a part of the brain that is believed to contribute directly to decision-making, especially to action selection and initiation.
Essentially, they found that activation of one type of neuron, called D1, determines whether one drink leads to two.
Now, they have discovered the neurons that tell us to stop.
These neurons can be thought of like a tree, with many branches, and many small protrusions, or spines, coming off of them.
Each neuron has one of two types of dopamine receptors — D1 or D2 — and so can be thought of as either D1 or D2 neurons.
When D2 neurons are activated, they discourage action — telling you to wait, to stop, to do nothing.
“At least from the addiction point of view, D2 neurons are good. When they are activated, they inhibit drinking behaviour, and therefore activating them is important for preventing problem drinking behaviour,” said Jun Wang from Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine in the US.
Even in individuals without alcoholism, D2 neurons tend to become deactivated when we drink too much, the researchers said.
But by manipulating the activity of these neurons, the researchers were actually able to change the alcohol-drinking behaviour of animals who had been “trained” to seek alcohol.
By activating D2 neurons, they were able to decrease alcohol consumption, and the more the D2 neurons were activated, the greater the effect is likely to be.
The findings were published in the journal Biological Psychiatry.
Shanghai’s rich middle class is leading a wave of online dissent over the strict and prolonged lockdowns imposed in various parts of the country. Chinese internet censorship is struggling as patience is wearing thin in many urban centers, coming up with creative forms of online protests.
Social Media Posts Revealing Lockdown Tension in Shanghai
Drawn-out lockdowns are nothing new in China as authorities insist with the nation’s zero-Covid policy since the start of the pandemic. Currently over This time around, however, metropolitan areas like Shanghai are increasingly difficult to keep quiet, given that its more than 25 million residents have seen weeks of total isolation along with food shortages and many other service interruptions.
Dozens of towns and reportedly over 300 million Chinese citizens have been affected by lockdowns of different severity. As expected, urban netizens have been most outspoken over their difficulties by finding creative ways to get around state censorship and bans placed on topics, news comments and spontaneous campaigns.
Shanghai residents have been using mobile proxies and hijacking seemingly unrelated hashtags to talk about healthcare issues, delivery failures and the overall severity of their situation. The “positive energy” that the Chinese government wants to transmit during the recent prolonged series of lockdowns does not come naturally to those counting food supplies and online censors are working hard to filter words, trending topics and undesired social media sharing.
WeChat groups and message threads are under constant monitoring. Posts questioning the zero-Covid approach have been quickly deleted, including by leading Chinese health experts like Dr. Zhong Nanshan. Video footage is soon censored and protests and investigations are quickly made to disappear.
Where this has not worked, officials have exposed banners with warnings and outright threats like “watch your own mouth or face punishment”, while drones have been patrolling the city skies. Yet, if anything, this has led to further tensions and unspoken confrontation with Shanghai’s educated and affluent middle class.
Creative Online Solutions Harnessing Civic Energy
Announcements by Chinese social media that they would be publishing the IP addresses of users who “spread rumors” have not helped either. Tech industry research has shown that much of Asia’s tech-savvy population has a habit of using mobile proxies and other privacy tools, quickly finding workarounds to browse the internet freely and talk to the world about the hottest topics.
The sheer volume of forbidden posts is already a challenge for the very censorship system, experts explain. Unable to track all trending hashtags, state workers overlook topics that speak about the US, Ukraine or other popular news. Linking human rights elsewhere to their situation, Chinese online dissidents establish their informal channels and “hijack” the conversation to share personal or publicly relevant information about the Covid suppression in their town.
Sarcastic and satirical posts still dominate. Others hope to evade the censors by replacing words from famous poems or the national anthem. One thing is certain – social media, when harnessed with the right creativity, has proven its ability to mount pressure on the government in even some of the most strictly controlled tech environments like China.
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