What region of the human brain do drugs affect first?
February 29, 2012 11:24 AM Subscribe
Drugs and the brain: when one ingests drugs (by any method), what region of the brain do they affect first? Last?
Forgive me, as my knowledge of brain chemistry is really pretty minimal, but I'm interested in the path that drugs take through the brain. Do chemicals follow the obvious route through the medulla first, or is there a different route that they somehow take? I'm unable to work this out with evidence I'm finding online.
In the simplest of terms, what order do drugs affect the three main areas of the brain - the hindbrain, midbrain, and forebrain? Also, after they've affected these three areas, where to next?
I'm growing more interested in this stuff by the day - and the more interested I get, the further over my head information flies.
Forgive me, as my knowledge of brain chemistry is really pretty minimal, but I'm interested in the path that drugs take through the brain. Do chemicals follow the obvious route through the medulla first, or is there a different route that they somehow take? I'm unable to work this out with evidence I'm finding online.
In the simplest of terms, what order do drugs affect the three main areas of the brain - the hindbrain, midbrain, and forebrain? Also, after they've affected these three areas, where to next?
I'm growing more interested in this stuff by the day - and the more interested I get, the further over my head information flies.
This post was deleted for the following reason: poster's request -- jessamyn
Best answer: The technical term you're looking for is the "pharmacokinetics" of drugs in the brain. One aspect of pharmacokinetics is the study of drug distribution, which describes how and when a drug gets to various organs.
As far as I can tell, there have been few studies of drug distribution at the resolution of regions of the brain. Here's one from 2002 looking at the drug vinpocetine, using PET imaging. They found that concentration peaked in the thalamus, occipital cortex, and cerebellum at approximately the same time, and that the peak was a little delayed in the upper brainstem. This article also looks interesting, proposing a general PET-based technique to localize drug function, but I don't have access to the full text.
I think that we can assume that the answer to your question will vary greatly over both classes of drugs and classes of patients; I doubt there is a general or "typical" answer. But it does not seem to have been studied closely yet.
posted by mr_roboto at 11:58 AM on February 29, 2012 [1 favorite]
As far as I can tell, there have been few studies of drug distribution at the resolution of regions of the brain. Here's one from 2002 looking at the drug vinpocetine, using PET imaging. They found that concentration peaked in the thalamus, occipital cortex, and cerebellum at approximately the same time, and that the peak was a little delayed in the upper brainstem. This article also looks interesting, proposing a general PET-based technique to localize drug function, but I don't have access to the full text.
I think that we can assume that the answer to your question will vary greatly over both classes of drugs and classes of patients; I doubt there is a general or "typical" answer. But it does not seem to have been studied closely yet.
posted by mr_roboto at 11:58 AM on February 29, 2012 [1 favorite]
Oh, man, but I did a literature search!
posted by mr_roboto at 12:16 PM on February 29, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by mr_roboto at 12:16 PM on February 29, 2012 [2 favorites]
Well, I'll give you a favorite, mr_roboto, since you actually answered the question...
posted by Specklet at 12:18 PM on February 29, 2012
posted by Specklet at 12:18 PM on February 29, 2012
and I was already to do some some DMSO and LSD-via-eyeball googling. Shucks.
posted by alms at 12:19 PM on February 29, 2012
posted by alms at 12:19 PM on February 29, 2012
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I suggest you do some basic research on neurotransmitters, which are affected by psychoactive drugs and therefore the ultimate source of those drugs' effects.
posted by Specklet at 11:48 AM on February 29, 2012