$3 MILLION BRAIN SCANNER IS NEW WEAPON IN DRUG FIGHT

Today, the White House drug czar's office will help unveil a powerful
new brain scanner at Atlanta's Emory University Hospital for
groundbreaking research on drug addiction.

The $3 million Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI) scanner
will snap pictures of the human brain on drugs and may help pave the
way toward a cure for drug abuse, says Al Brandenstein, the chief of
technology at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The drug czar's office contributed about a fourth of the funding for
the scanner.

The Emory machine will be used by Michael Kuhar, a researcher at the
Yerkes Primate Research Center, which is part of Emory. Kuhar and his
colleagues will use the FMRI to home in on the precise parts of the
brain that are active when someone is under the influence of drugs
such as cocaine.

''The FMRI gives us a window into the human brain,'' he says.

The FMRI and other brain scanners allow researchers to unravel the
complex puzzle of addictive behavior, he says. For example, one region
of the brain may come into play when a drug abuser experiences a
craving for a drug. Another region of the brain may kick in after the
abuser actually takes the drug, Kuhar says.

Scientists must figure out each step of the addictive process in order
to find a cure, he says.

The FMRI will speed Kuhar's own research: He and his colleagues have
tested several experimental drugs that have blocked the craving for
cocaine in monkeys.

Kuhar and others also hope to find out what makes some people go back
to cocaine and other illicit drugs again and again.

''Drugs change the brain,'' leaving certain people more vulnerable to
a relapse, Kuhar says.

Research such as Kuhar's will, in the near future, help people
battling a drug addiction, Brandenstein says. Today, doctors have no
medical cure for cocaine addiction.

''In the next five years, we'll have several new compounds that will
counteract cocaine abuse,'' Brandenstein predicts.

The federal contribution to the scanner in Atlanta is part of a major
new effort launched by the White House drug czar's office to help
researchers map regions of the brain responsible for drug addiction.

The drug czar's office recently provided FMRIs or other types of brain
scanners for drug research at six other institutions, including
Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.