Cocaine alters sleep and wakefulness

• May 5, 2024

Researchers have long known that cocaine use in the long term generates disorders of epilepsy or cerebral; However, a team of Argentine researchers, from National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (Conicet), found that the substance causes brain damage in a short time.

According to experts, just one day of abuse of this drug is enough to alter the rhythms of dream Y vigil ; In addition, neuronal modifications are produced by affecting the cortex and the thalamus of the brain . The latter, formed by different systemsneuronal , located in the center of brain , receives sensory stimuli, which are processed and forwarded to the cerebral cortex, such as sight.

In the investigation they were given a strong dose of cocaine adolescent mice, to check that the circuit that goes thalamus the bark is damaged by abusing, even once, the narcotic.

In information published by the excelsior.com.mx , it is mentioned that during the study changes similar to those of the Parkinson wave epilepsy He pointed out researcher Francisco Urbano .

Also, after obtaining electroencephalograms of the mice, the team found that after the administration of cocaine , the electrical activity corresponded to the sleep stage and not to the waking stage.

"The cocaine activates the T channels and generates a contradiction in the neuronal rhythms: it causes the brain of the animal is in a stadium of dream , when your body is active and awake, and that generates pathologies, "explained Francisco Urbano.

"If this happens acutely, when you inject an animal for a day, it is very easy to imagine what happens with the abuse of drug throughout adolescence, "the expert added.

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