Brain’s nicotine receptors treat schizophrenia Washington:
Scientists have suggested that nicotine receptors of the brain,
which are important to smokers trying to quit tobacco, also play
an important role in social interaction and the ability to
choose between competing motivations. Specifically, scientists
from France showed that the nicotinic receptors in the
prefrontal cortex are essential for social interaction in mice
and that this area of the brain is necessary for adapted and
balanced social interactions to occur. This new knowledge could
one day lead to novel treatments for ADHD, schizophrenia, and
depression, among other illnesses. “One of the main aims would
be to understand and help people to make good decisions for
themselves (and for others) and to maintain, during old age,
such abilities in the social domain as well as in other aspects
of our lives,” Sylvie Granon, a researcher from the Universite
Paris Sud XI and CNRS UMR 8620, Centre de Neurosciences Paris-
Sud, Orsay, France, said. To make th