UNIVERSITY CENTER WILL MONITOR ADDICTS' BRAINS

By October 2002, University of Colorado researchers will be using one of
the nation's most powerful magnetic imaging machines to monitor the brain
activity of teen addicts. Their hope: to better understand the reasons, and
potential treatments, for addiction.

Workers at the Fitzsimons campus of the University of Colorado Health
Sciences Center soon will begin transforming a vacant building into the
$4.2 million Center for Brain Imaging and Drug Abuse Research.

The center is one of 10 established and funded by the U.S. Office of
National Drug Control Policy since 1997.

Its centerpiece is a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine more
than four times as powerful as those available at area hospitals.

"This is a fabulous opportunity," said Marie Banich, a professor of
psychology at the University of Colorado. "It gives us a powerful tool to
answer questions we could not answer before."

Banich is part of a dream team of psychologists, psychiatrists,
radiologists and electrical and computer engineers from the two University
of Colorado campuses who will come together for the project.

They hope to build on existing research suggesting a genetic predisposition
for addiction.

While standard magnetic resonance imaging machines are used to look for
structural abnormalities in the brain, the center's machine will be used
primarily to look at electrical activity in the brains of teenage addicts
and those thought to be predisposed to addiction.

Oxygenated and de-oxygenated blood have different magnetic properties, and
areas that are very active use a lot of oxygen, Banich said.

During studies, teens will be asked to do a task while the machine measures
their brain activity.

"We know that the brains of addicts often look normal, but don't act
normal. We need a much more powerful magnet to see that," said Dr. Robert
Freedman, professor of the department of psychiatry at the University of
Colorado Health Sciences Center. "This is a big deal. This kind of
technology is so expensive it is not generally obtainable for researchers."

Research already has shown there may be a strong genetic component to
addiction. For instance, studies have shown that identical twins, who share
more genetic material, have a stronger tendency to share any predisposition
to addiction than fraternal twins do.

Banich said the machine will allow her to look at the electrical activity
of the frontal lobe, which controls how we focus our attention and make
decisions and what we find emotionally rewarding.

Addicts tend to have an inability to control their attention and choose
"reward now" despite consequences down the line, she said. Researchers say
they think a flaw in frontal lobe activity may be to blame.