We are all 'wired' for addiction, says researcher
In "What is Abnormal About Addiction-Related Attentional Biases?" an article in press in Drug and Alcohol Dependence , Psychology Professor Brian Anderson argues that normal people show many of the same biases as people who are addicted to drugs. "This suggests that these seemingly 'pathological features' of addiction may in fact reflect a normal cognitive process -- that we are all to some degree 'wired' to become addicted," he explains. Anderson, who specializes in cognitive neuroscience, says one of the features that characterizes addiction is strong attentional biases for drug cues. "Attentional bias is a tendency to direct your attention to something even when it conflicts with your goals, making it difficult to ignore," he notes. "A drug cue is something that serves as a predictive cue for the experience of the drug. An example would be a syringe in the case of an injectable drug, or a bong in the case of a drug that is in...