Addict or non-addict brain?: A new study finds addicts and their siblings share the same brain abnormalities. This is a nifty picture of my gray matter (I'm so proud!) but you'll have to guess what it shows.Courtesy Mark RyanIs the circuitry of an addict's brain different because of drug abuse or is drug abuse caused by innate differences in the brain? This is one of the questions raised during a new study out of the University of Cambridge. Researchers there compared the brains of 50 addicted individuals with the brains of a non-addicted brother or sister. What they found was that both the addict and their non-addict sibling display the same abnormalities in the brain areas that control behavior. Yet, despite possessing this similar inborn brain disorder, the non-addict siblings somehow managed to avoid getting hooked into a self-destructive lifestyle. If the scientists can figure out how the siblings did that, it could open up new ways of treating addiction. The study appears in the journal Science.

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BBC story

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