Question: what made want study drugs?

Emma Cahill answered on 13 Nov 2013:

Hiya Hannah, it may seem a bit wierd but I study drug addiction because its sort of like a memory problem, and someday I want to understand how memory works at the level of molecules.
When somebody takes drugs like alcohol or cannabis or cocaine etc, parts of our brains that normally are there to learn and remember how we got a reward (like food) become activated. You can tell your teacher you would learn much better if you got a reward too!
Addictive drugs mimic the chemical signals in our brain normally released by the reward. So if a cavemen found a piece of fruit or a nice cavelady, a part of the brain called the limbic system became activated. The limbic system communicates by sending signals, called neurotransmitters, to other brain regions. Drugs are like fake neurotransmitters, and so they trick the limbic system into thinking they are worth finding again and the brain learns to seek out the drug. The problem is that these drugs cause a type of learning that is way too strong,and addicted people will give up other activities in their life in search for the drug. I want to understand why drugs, and not food for example, cause this sort of bad-habit learning and memory. In my next job, I’m going to try and understand if we can find a pharmalogical way to help people un-learn their drug habit.