Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id OAA10282 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 28 Aug 2001 14:55:45 +0100 Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D310174605A@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: Spoiled Reward-Pathway Hypothesis Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 14:37:18 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain X-Filter-Info: UoS MailScan 0.1 [D 1] Sender: fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>> I'm prepared to be laughed at here, but what about the Giant
Panda?
>> It's not exactly adapted for a bamboo only diet, isn't this
addictive
>> behaviour?
<What inspired you to say this Vincent? To the best of my
> knowledge, Panda's are highly adapted to eating bamboo; they have
> suitably tough throats and stomachs to handle bamboo trunks and
> splinters. Therefore I don't, in any way, find it possible to
> conceive of this vital activity as damaging addictive behavior.
> On the contrary.>
>
Well I'm probably wrong, but I thought that the Giant Panda's
overall body design suggested an origin as a carnivore that developed a
taste for bamboo that it is now tied to in a way that is leading to its
extinction (bar human intervention to save it). That's what prompted me to
suggest this.
>
>> One problem, I suppose, is how one might define addictive
behaviour in
>> animals in their natural environments, given that they largley
>> do not have the "free" time as it were, to indulge behaviours
>> as humans can thanks to our (in the developed parts of the
>> world at any rate) having taken away the time spent gathering
>> food etc. Surely the lab experiments demonstrate the
>> principle that animals are capable of addictive behaviour
>> given the "right" circumstances?
<Allow me to present you with a definition cooked up by myself.
> Addictive behavior: a type of behavior that gains dominance over
> other behaviors to such an extent that the well-being or life-
> expectancy of the relevant party is reduced.
>
> Corrolary: If the addictive behavior has overshadowed attention
> to more beneficial or vital types of behaviors, it can be said
> that the addictive behavior is damaging.>
>
That doesn't dispute the point that other animals are capable of
behavioural addiction. Some might say that culture in an of itself is a
behaviour addiction perculiar to (or most developed in) humans.
<Drugs, sex, gambling, eating... when exercising these activities
> to an addictive repetitive degree they all have a common
> neurochemical denominator. That is, they affect
> the brain in a similar way. So yes, gambling can truly be
> addictive.>
>
Yes, perhaps. There does seem to be a strange gap though between
the behaviour and induced physiological effect e.g. why does gambling
trigger addictive behaviour in some but not others (whilst drug addiction,
depending on the drug, I assume is a little more likely whatever the
personality)? Perhaps it's something to do with the tuning of our
risk-reward networks in our brains (making the assumption that there is such
a thing, probably with a proper name...).
Vincent
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