this is your mouse brain on drugs

Mouse Party is a funny Flash game that lets you explore how mice brains react to different drugs. Even though it’s not particularly informative, it’s kinda entertaining to watch a bunch of drugged out animated mice groove to chillout music and see how they react when you put them in the chair to be studied. ::giggle::

(Tx: Mor)

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9 thoughts on “this is your mouse brain on drugs

  1. Marcela

    Hahaha. It’s actually pretty informative if you click through the animations on how neurotransmitters react to the specific drugs. If biology class had been that interesting, maybe I would have gone into biomedical research after all…

  2. James

    Interesting. This University of Utah website refers to the featured drugs as – drugs of abuse -, as though abuse is a guaranteed outcome of use. And yet, millions of people use alcohol, marijuana and even other drugs without becoming addicts, ruining lives or otherwise abusing the drug. Seems to me the University has some bias built into its interpretations. Could bias exist in their observations as well?

    Beware of bad science.

  3. Dave

    Hm.. I think this is a very informative and entertaining way of educating people of how drugs effect the brain. Its been some time since I have been in junior high but I hope this is the direction drug education is taking. As for the previous comment about bias, I think you are reading into this a little far. You are correct that many people lead healthy and productive lives even with moderate intake of some drugs, many however are susceptable (sp?) to neurochemically induced addictive properties and each drug has a toxic trade off (hence being hung over, spaced out, spent, strung out, dead etc.). Some have very probable long term negative effects whether they be neurochemically, emotionally, or physically, and very likely a combination of all these three. Not every user may be refered to as an abuser but every drug can potentially be abused. In many cases abuse and addiction may result as much from the properties of the drugs themselves as they may from the personality of the person using them. Drugs have this interesting way of changing our brain chemistry and altering a personality and lifestyle both temporarily and perhaps permenantly. The challenge to combating drug abuse perhaps lie most fundamentally in getting people to understand how they chemically effect us, and the potential hazards they pose as a result of the chemical changes they bring about. Interactive Cartoon mice on drugs might be one of the best means of conveying this information. As far as bias goes, here i think it is in the eye of the beholder.

    forget bad science, beware of denial.

  4. eileen uribe querol

    It was really fun to play with the mice. I hope there were more sites like this because people can understand better what is happening in the brain. Great job!

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