In August 2012, after providing all the funding for The Brain from Top to Bottom for over 10 years, the CIHR Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction informed us that because of budget cuts, they were going to be forced to stop sponsoring us as of March 31, 2013. Ever since we got this news, the little team that produces this web site has been looking for a new source of stable institutional funding so that we can continue our mission of providing the general public with the best possible information about the brain and neuroscience.

We have approached a number of organizations, all of which have recognized the value of our work. We are still in negotiations with some of them, which may prove fruitful within the next few months. But so far, we have not managed to find the funding we need. For the moment, we must therefore ask our readers for donations so that we can continue updating and adding new content to The Brain from Top to Bottom web site and blog.

The "fundraising thermometer" that you see below shows, in order of priority, from the bottom up, what work we plan to do with the money that we raise and how much money we still need to raise to meet our annual budget. We will update this thermometer regularly, so that readers always have an accurate picture of our finances.

Please rest assured that we are doing our utmost to keep this site accessible in the original spirit of the Internet: the desire to share information free of charge and with no advertising.

Whether your support is moral, financial, or both, thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Bruno Dubuc, Patrick Robert, Denis Paquet, and Al Daigen





Funding Update

April 22, 2013

It has been only two weeks since we began our fundraising drive for The Brain from Top to Bottom, and we have already received nearly $2 500. That will be enough to pay for basic maintenance and management of the site for the coming year and to write blog posts for the next few weeks. These results are very encouraging. Please pass the word to anyone else you know who enjoys this site and might want to might want to help fund the rest of its activities. And thank you so much for your support!


Monday, 30 April 2012
Theories on Drug Addiction

processus-opposantsThe abusive consumption of a drug can result in dependency on it. The various phenomena associated with drug dependency—also commonly referred to as “drug addiction”—are fairly well known: initial pleasure, then tolerance, withdrawal, and so on. But these phenomena are so complex that it is hard to construct satisfactory models for them. Hence, many theories have been developed to try to explain drug dependency/addiction, and these theories are still being debated today.

The Intermediate (green) link below takes you to an explanation of one of these theories, the opponent-process theory, complete with diagrams.

The Advanced (red) link takes you to a discussion of some recent neurochemical data that tend to support the effects described in the opponent-process model.

i_link Addiction and the Opponent Process Theory
a_link Addiction and the brain antireward system

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