Mind Over Matter - Teacher's Guide

Stimulants

Stimulant drugs such as cocaine, "crack," amphetamines, and caffeine are substances that speed up activity in the brain and spinal cord. This, in turn, can cause the heart to beat faster and blood pressure and metabolism to increase. Stimulants often influence a person to be more talkative and anxious and to experience feelings of exhilaration.

Use of cocaine and other stimulants can cause someone's heart to beat abnormally fast and at an unsteady rate. Use of these drugs also narrows blood vessels, reducing the flow of blood and oxygen to the heart, which results in "starving" the heart muscle. Even professional athletes whose bodies are well-conditioned have succumbed to cocaine's ability to cause heart failure. Researchers currently have no way to detect who may be more susceptible to these effects.

• Stimulants Mechanism of Action
  Cocaine acts on the pleasure circuit to prevent reabsorption of the neurotransmitter dopamine after its release from nerve cells.
  
  
• Stimulants Activity One
  The student will learn that cocaine affects neurotransmission in the mesolimbic dopamine system, sometimes referred to as the pleasure center.
  
  
• Stimulants Activity Two
  The student will learn the way in which dopamine is related to the sensation of pleasure. The student will learn how stimulants interfere with dopamine re-uptake.
  
  
• Stimulants Activity Three
  The student will learn and share interesting and unusual information about the effects of cocaine, amphetamines, and caffeine on the brain and behavior.