CHARACTERISTIC EEG PATTERNS IN AGING AND DRUG ADDICTION

Abstract

Aging and drug addiction are two of the most pressing problems of our time. Individually, they are well studied, the mechanisms of their course are disclosed and attempts are being made to find ways to reduce their pathological manifestations. At the same time, many processes that occur with aging and drug addiction have a similar tendency, except that with drug addiction they proceed at a faster pace. This allows us to consider drug addiction as an accelerated model of aging and forms the purpose of this study: to identify the degree of similarity of changes in the electrical activity of the brain during aging and drug addiction. The research was carried out on the basis of the psychophysiological laboratory of the Department of Developmental Psychology and Professional Activity of DSU. 62 men took part in the experiment, which were divided into 3 groups: 1) control (healthy young people aged 25–35 years); 2) experimental group 1 (elderly people aged 61–75 years); 3) experimental group 2 (drug addicts aged 25–35 years). In the selected groups, EEG was recorded in the form of a continuous recording of the values of the potential difference between two points of the brain. The conducted studies of brain activity among senile people and drug addicts revealed signs of similarity of EEG patterns, manifested in slowing down the main rhythms, destabilization of cortical activity and a decrease in response to functional tests. The EEG of senile people and drug addicts is characterized by a disorganized EEG pattern with a predominance of spectral power and the alpha rhythm intensity index with a shift towards slow-wave activity. Changes in the severity of EEG waves of senile people and drug addicts are accompanied by a violation of the stabilization of cortical activity and a weakening of the response to functional tests. The revealed changes in the EEG may be associated with the activation of synchronizing brain systems.