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Imaging studies have shown that the brains of people addicted to stimulant drugs are structurally different from the brains of nonaddicted people. Are these differences caused by substance abuse, or do they reflect preexisting, inherited changes that render certain people vulnerable to addiction?
British investigators used various imaging technologies to study the brains of 50 sibling pairs (one addicted to stimulants, the other nonaddicted) and 50 nonaddicted, unrelated healthy participants matched for age and intelligence. Gray-matter changes in the dorsal striatum and white-matter changes in tracts entering the prefrontal cortex were similar in the sibling pairs but were not seen in the controls. Areas of the brain involved in reward-seek…