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"One caveat is whether the exercises done with real-time fMRI can then be extended to real-life situations," adds Rita Goldstein, a research scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory, in Upton, NY. "But the prediction is that it will be like exercise, strengthening the functions subserved by those specific brain regions."
If the feedback technique is effective, it could ultimately be combined with other treatment strategies, such as desensitization or medication. Some behavioral treatments, for example, teach drug abusers to try to dissociate drugs cues, such as a needle or a cigarette, from the emotional feelings these visual stimuli elicit. Cycloserine, an antibiotic that also affects the brain's learning and memory systems, has been shown to boost the effectiveness of this approach for people with a fear of heights. Volkow suggests that the same could possibly be done with real-time fMRI and addiction.
A new way to create and interpret real-time brain scans could help addicts control their cravings.
An ingenious method for making new organs could one day revolutionize medical transplants.
Notwithstanding the incredible work that Christopher deCharms is doing at OMNUERON, as well as the work which continue at Brookhaven and Columbia, and being that I have a declared bias in the area, I suggest a careful assessment is necessary. The use of this tool has merit provided that it remains within the clinical/therapeutic realm and does not allowed to venture into the realm of phantasmagoria that is the world of ‘Forensic Assessment’. It is within this realm that it has absolutely no place as evidence over than that the viewer recognized and identified with something that appeared on the screen that was similar or not to something referenced before. Extreme care must be taken on this level.
Further to this, I have to question the economic viability of using an fMRI as a tool to mitigate addictive behavior. The one benefit I do see is the possibility of constructive intimidation, a craft I practice myself during interventions., however the shear operational economies of such a machine would likely eliminate it from all but the most exclusive of clientelle. For my part, I am in the process of storyboarding the triple bypass surgery about to be done on a Very Scared Crystal Meth addict, at his request which will be ultimately used for just such constructive intimidation. Of course tit is widely recognized that when dealing with Crystal Meth addiction, none of the conventional treatment rules apply.
Manufacturing in the United States is in trouble. That's bad news not just for the country's economy but for the future of innovation.
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phoenix
172 Comments
dependency
People who suffer from the effects of alcohol and drug dependencies are nothing new. They are as old as time itself. Part of the problem is in formulating a strong psychological process to help the person deal with the absence of reality. The early Catholic Church knew what they were talking about when they summed it up by saying, 'Spiritus Contra Spiritum.'
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