2016/09/22 by Hanna Pickard, Serge H. Ahmed · 1 citation
Neuroscience · Psychology · #Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior #Psychedelics and Drug Studies #Primate Behavior and Ecology
paper · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198727224.003.0002
openalex publication_date 2016/09/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Choice models of addiction raise a stark puzzle. Why, if addicts are able to control their consumption and choose to abstain in many circumstances, do they routinely choose to continue to use despite negative consequences? We delineate four options available to a choice theorist to explain this puzzle with respect to human addicts; describe recent experiments with addicted rats which determine the conditions under which they do and do not choose alternative goods over cocaine and heroin respectively; and consider how this animal research bears on our understanding of the nature of addiction. We conclude by arguing for the importance to addiction research of the popular notion of “denial” which, paradoxically, we can begin to theorize by appeal to animal models: for the puzzle dissolves if addicts do not know that the choice to use is the cause of negative consequences, as rats, given their cognitive limitations, cannot.