Overview
Behavioral neurology is a field concerned with the impacts of physical brain changes on memory, thinking patterns, emotional processing, and external behavior. Dementias like Alzheimer’s disease are among the most common conditions addressed by behavioral neurologists, though they deal with all kinds of incidents ranging from strokes to traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) to diseases responsible for sudden personality changes.
The behavioral neurological perspective on addiction concieves it as a chronic brain disorder resulting from structural changes in neural circuits as a result of prolonged substance or process use. Compulsive behaviors emerge as a result of changes in the pathways that govern reward, memory, and self-control. When using a substance, the ventral tegmental area and nucleus accumbens are flooded with dopamine.