'Electronic cocaine': a new look at addiction to computers

By Damian Thompson
June 21st, 2012

"Electronic cocaine": I wish I'd thought of that. The phrase has been coined by Dr Peter Whybrow, a British-born psychiatrist who runs the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behaviour at UCLA, to describe how digital innovation is becoming ever smarter at exploiting our bodies' natural reward systems. Here's a passage from his interview with Mary Fischer for Pacific Standard:

“The computer is electronic cocaine for many people,” says Whybrow. “Our brains are wired for finding immediate reward. With technology, novelty is the reward. You essentially become addicted to novelty.”

We can’t stop because the brain has no built-in braking system. With most natural constraints gone, all we’ve got left is our own intelligence and the internal regulatory system in the frontal cortex, the most recent evolutionary addition to the brain. This “executive brain” regulates impulse control and reasoning. But, Whybrow notes, “despite our superior intelligence, we remain driven by our ancient desires.”

The most primitive part of our brain – the medulla and cerebellum – developed millennia ago when dinner tended to run or fly away. It cradles the roots of the ancient dopamine reward pathways. When an action has a good result, like snatching food before it escapes, or finding something new, dopamine neurotransmitters release chemicals that make us feel pleasure. And the more we get, the more we want. When these reward circuits are overloaded with near-continuous spikes in dopamine, our craving for reward – be it drugs, sex, food, or incoming texts – “becomes a hunger that has no bounds,” says Whybrow.

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