533. The transition to addiction: repeat dopamine D2/3 receptor PET scans in high-risk volunteers
M Nikolic, M Iqbal, N Palacio, C Caswell, S Cox, J Séguin, G Masserweh, F Vitaro, M Brendgen, S Parent, M Boivin, S Côté, R Tremblay, N Castellanos-Ryan, M Leyton · 2026
Read 533. The transition to addiction: repeat dopamine D2/3 receptor PET scans in high-risk volunteers by M Nikolic, M Iqbal, N Palacio, C Caswell, S Cox, J Séguin, G Masserweh, F Vitaro, M Brendgen, S Parent, M Boivin, S Côté, R Tremblay, N Castellanos-Ryan, M Leyton (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13556698.txt.
Description
M Nikolic and a large team of co-authors scan the brains of at-risk youth twice to ask whether a brain trait invites addiction or addiction carves the trait, in a 2026 paper. People with substance use disorders show fewer dopamine D2/3 receptors, a fact often repeated in psychiatry. The team scanned volunteers at eighteen and again at twenty-five, before and after some developed a disorder.
At eighteen, the future disorder group showed more of the receptor in reward areas, not less. By twenty-five their levels had fallen below the control group's, after steeper drops over the seven years. Heavier drinking tracked with lower levels and bigger drops. The authors read this as the trait starting high, then being worn down by use.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | M Nikolic, M Iqbal, N Palacio, C Caswell, S Cox, J Séguin, G Masserweh, F Vitaro, M Brendgen, S Parent, M Boivin, S Côté, R Tremblay, N Castellanos-Ryan, M Leyton |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 3 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |