Join us for a seminar titled “Drugs and the Brain: How Psychoactive Drugs Alter Brain Activity” with Cecilia Phillips Toro, Biology Faculty. The nervous system is the ultimate target of many drugs: those taken to alleviate pain, to increase pleasure, or to transform perceptions. We will focus on the neurobiological effects of three common psychoactive drugs: caffeine, cocaine, and cannabis. We will discuss the natural sources of each drug, and how each one affects neurotransmitters present at synapses in particular parts of the brain. We will then see how understanding the cellular targets of these drugs can allow us to gain insight into the effects, both desired and undesired, of drug usage. We will see how caffeine inhibits sleep, why cocaine is so pleasurable and so addictive, and why cannabis broadly affects many brain functions, including memory, the desire to eat, and pain perception.
A Zoom link will be sent to registrants prior to the event or email alum@sarahlawrence.edu.