Posted on 08/12/2004 4:18:24 PM PDT by qam1
Lacking brain receptor, slacking monkeys become workaholics
Just in time for back-to-school season, researchers have turned procrastinating monkeys into workaholics by suppressing a gene that encodes a receptor for a key brain chemical.
The receptor, for the neurotransmitter dopamine, is important for reward learning. By suppressing it, researchers at the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in Bethesda, Maryland caused monkeys to lose their sense of balance between reward and the work required to get it.
"Like many of us, monkeys normally slack off initially in working toward a distant goal. They work more efficiently—make fewer errors—as they get closer to being rewarded," says Barry Richmond of the NIMH Laboratory of Neuropsychology. "But without the dopamine receptor, they consistently stayed on-task and made few errors, because they could no longer learn to use visual cues to predict how their work was going to get them a reward."
Receptor suppression
The ability to associate work with reward is thought to go awry in many mental disorders, says Richmond, including schizophrenia, mood disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
"For example, people who are depressed often feel nothing is worth the work," says Richmond. "People with OCD work incessantly; even when they get rewarded they feel they must repeat the task. In mania, people will work feverishly for rewards that aren't worth the trouble to most of us."
For their study, Richmond and colleagues used a molecular technique to shut off expression of a gene encoding receptors called D2. They created a DNA antisense agent—a genetic mirror image that shuts off production of target proteins—and injected it into an area of the brain called the rhinal cortex. The area was targeted because it's rich in dopamine and was previously associated with reward learning. The antisense agent turned off D2 expression for several weeks.
Reward learning impaired
Injected monkeys had been trained to release a lever when a spot on a monitor turned from red to green. If they did it right, the spot turned blue. A gray bar on the monitor indicated their progress, and when they successfully completed a trial they would get a juice treat.
Before the gene tweak, the monkeys would make fewer errors as they got closer to receiving a reward. After the gene tweak, they couldn't associate visual cues with workload and therefore couldn't figure out how much more they had to work to get a reward.
"The monkeys became extreme workaholics, as evidenced by a sustained low rate of errors in performing the experimental task, irrespective of how distant the reward might be," says Richmond. "This was conspicuously out-of-character for these animals. Like people, they tend to procrastinate when they know they will have to do more work before getting a reward."
Besides helping researchers understand reward learning—and giving hope to procrastinators everywhere—the study also points to a new technique for exploring molecular aspects of behavior.
The research is reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
I'll read this post later.......
bump
I need my dopamine receptor suppressed in a big way.
Now, all they need to do is get this put in coffee with an effect that lasts 4 hours.
So that is what's wrong with liberals - bad dopamine receptors.
Or some place like China just injecting the workers as part of their slavery .. oops, employment conditions.
Wow, a cure for liberalism and liberals!
In his discussion of monkeys, that researcher used unfair stereotyping, profiling and offensive language...
Now all that's needed is a field test on a Kennedy, then up up and away for FDA approval!
Could we mass-produce this for teenagers?
Bookmark to read later, if I get around to it.
Can we put a tap on the receptor? I'd like to be able to choose.
:D
Later.
It would probably be a safe guess that that is the idea. Genetically-designed slaves. And the way things have been going with cloning and stem cells...the Brave New World is just around the corner.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.