A Huge Mistake by Laney Kay

Author:Laney Kay [Kay, Laney]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Porkchop Publications, LLC
Published: 2019-10-21T16:00:00+00:00

7

After a quick breakfast, and a quickie after breakfast on the balcony overlooking Jake’s private cove, Jake and Lola were back at Jake’s office by eight a.m. When they got downstairs and let themselves into the private computer room, Jerry Jeff looked solemn. He introduced them to his friend, Professor John Littman, and told them to take a seat.

“Guys, Dr. Littman is an expert on addiction and neuroplasticity, and he’s designed a ton of different programs to help retrain the brain to help break the cycle of addiction. I’m going to let him explain what we’re looking at here.”

Lola was confused. “Dr. Littman, I thought you helped stroke victims and people with head injuries, I didn’t realize you were also involved with addiction.”

He nodded. “I’m a neurobiologist by training, and I have always been a specialist in neuroplasticity. Helping stroke victims and those with head injuries were some of the first computer programs that Jerry Jeff and I designed, and we had some great results with those. In fact, a lot of the programs that are still used today are improved versions of the one we originally designed. But my main interest now is utilizing neuroplasticity in addiction treatment.”

Dr. Littman leaned forward and looked at both of them. “How much do you know about addiction and neuroplasticity to improve recovery?”

Jake looked at Lola and shrugged. Lola answered for both of them. “We don’t know much, doc, so explain what it is you do and how all this fits together.”

He settled back in his chair. “Okay, let me give you an overview of how addiction works in the brain and what I think may be going on here. We used to think that the adult brain couldn’t really change or learn, but we learned that wasn’t true. The idea of neuroplasticity is basically the idea that the brain can change and adjust to compensate for injury, to learn new activities, and to respond to new changes or situations in the brain’s environment.” He became more animated as he explained. “Science has shown that repetitive actions can help form and strengthen these neural connections, and if you don’t use these pathways, they’ll eventually shrink or weaken. So let’s say a person has a stroke and the part of the brain that deals with speaking and comprehending spoken language is destroyed. There are computer programs that use repetition to help the brain form new connections that can compensate for the damaged areas and eventually, that person can learn to talk again.”

Lola and Jake were both nodding, so he continued. “Repetition is the key, which is why the computer programs are so effective. If you do the same thing over and over again, you can form new neural pathways in the brain and basically rewire your brain so these actions become a learned behavior, or a habit. These habits actually change the way your brain works, so once these pathways are established, it’s very difficult to change them.” He looked at them. “Does that make sense?”

They both nodded, and Jake admitted, “That makes sense so far.

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