According to a research funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), “addictive behaviour is determined by conscious, rapid thought processes, not necessarily by the content of visual stimuli as previously thought.”

A team of scientists from the Universities of Cambridge, Sussex and Nottingham found that while attention to visual clues are associated with addiction (attentional bias) may also trigger the bad habits, they do not necessarily control an individual’s decision to take drugs directly. The study suggests that visual clues only inform the individual that the bad habits exist. They do not drive him to adopt the bad habits. The said findings can pave the way towards the development of new and more effective treatments for substance abuse.

“We have shown that individuals only need to look at a cue representing the substance they are addicted to for a fleeting moment to want to act on it,” says Professor Theodora Duka of the University of Sussex and leader of the study. “This suggests that their actions are instead determined by conscious, rapid decision processes following the detection of a Pavlovian-type visual stimulus.”

“For instance,” she explains, “instead of the sight of a pub triggering the addictive behavior in an alcoholic our research shows that the momentary sight of a pub leads the brain to make rapid conscious decisions about going in for a drink, which is what the alcoholic values.”

In previous studies, scientists explained addiction in reference to Pavlov’s classical dog experiments. In these studies, conditional stimuli can elicit the same response as the ones created by the reward itself. Evidence suggests that addicts who exhibit a higher attentional bias towards drug-related visual cues are more vulnerable to relapse after undergoing treatment. This led to the recommendation of abolishing attentional bias to treat addiction.

This is not quite true, says University of Nottingham’s Dr. Lee Hogarth. “You can draw analogies with a person looking at a restaurant menu: they may scan all the items to see what is there, but their choice is determined by the mental image or value that they place on each dish. They choose the one that is most delicious to them at the time, even though their eyes may dwell on other items for longer.”

He adds that the results of their study show that “while attentional bias can be used to indicate drug motivation, it does not provide a credible target for the treatment of addiction. Instead, treatments designed to modify the expected value of the drug or food type may prove more effective.”

More on this research and other related studies here at Pacific Hills. Pacific Hills Treatment Centers is a renowned drug rehab that specializes in traditional and Christ-centered approaches to treatment.