Lager Than Life

Dr. Emma Robinson from the University of Bristol talks about: "What can animals tell us about addiction?"

Addiction is a complex disease involving psychological and physiological changes in the way the brain functions. Much of what we understand about how drugs, which are abused by man, act in the brain comes from studies in animals. This talk will highlight some of the advances made in our understanding of how drugs of abuse, such as alcohol and cocaine, affect brain chemistry and behaviour. The talk will also consider some of the challenging questions we face and how animal studies might help to address these. For example, why do some people develop addiction but others do not? Can we develop novel treatments which help to reduce the craving for drugs which addicts suffer from and is the main factor leading to relapse?

Professor Marcus Munafo from the University of Bristol talks about: "Are you looking at me? Emotion recognition in a social world"

Faces provide important information about the thoughts, feelings and their intentions of their owners, as well as information about health status. The ability to accurately decode this information therefore plays a critical role in social interactions, and impairments and biases in this ability are associated with a range of mental health problems. I will discuss the latest research into emotion recognition and other aspects of social cognition, including the effects of substances such as nicotine and alcohol on these processes. I will also discuss whether training to modify the recognition of emotion might have therapeutic potential.

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