to see if cocaine reducing brain activity affects the level of interest/ability of the individual
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Participants
17 control group matched pairs with 17 cocaine addicts
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Training
taught to press 1/4 coloured buttons that corresponded with the colour typeface that words were written in. words were either household objects or words related to drug use. Both groups performed equally well.
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How was interest/ability measured
there were monetary rewards available for fast, accurate responses which acted as a measure of both interest and ability.
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Actual Procedure
put in an MRI scanner where fMRI was carried out by scientistis to measure the amounts of oxygen used by different parts of the brain
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Result 1
1. reduced brain activity for cocaine users in an area of the anterior cingulate cortex that usually becomes more active when an individual is self-monitoring their behaviour.
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Result 2
2. another area of the same place had even less reduced activity for the addicts. usually becomes less active when supressing emotions. suggests the addicts are blocking emotions instead of monitoring them
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Result 3
3. found no link in the addicts' brains between monitoring of emotions and monitoring of behaviour. there is a link in non-users' brains.
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Conclusion
treatment should be improved in order to link these areas in the brains of cocaine abusers in order for them to regain self control (will be able to monitor both emotions and behaviour together)
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Generalisability
small sample: the cocaine users may have abnormal brain activity. one abnormality could skew the results
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Reliability
although trained, still room for error in the interpretations of the brain scans.//standardised procedure for all participants e.g. same words used
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Applicability
applicable to improving drug treatments for cocaine users by helping them to regain self control in order to fight the addiction
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Validity
brain scan so the low task and ecological validity would not impact the results as it studies the brain not the behaviour of the individuals
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Ethics
competency of the scientists carrying out and interpreting the scans//might have been traumatic experience to stay in the MRI scanner//triggering potentially for cocaine users the drug related words
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Other cards in this set
Card 2
Front
Participants
Back
17 control group matched pairs with 17 cocaine addicts
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