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WATCH: This Is What Adderall Does To Your Brain

This Is Your Brain On Adderall (VIDEO)
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By 

Senior Writer, The Huffington Post

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It's a little pill that can make you hyper-focused, suppress your appetite, and improve your mood and energy levels.

Sound familiar? Adderall is used by over 25 million people worldwide to treat ailments including ADHD, narcolepsy and depression -- and increasingly, the pills are being taken without a prescription to boost performance at school or work.

So what happens in your brain when you pop one? A new video from the American Chemical Society's series, Reactions, has some answers.

In short: It's all about the dopamine.

"People with ADHD tend to have lower levels of dopamine, the key chemical in the brain's reward center," neuroscientist Dr. Ryan Davison says in the video. "This lack of dopamine means that people are constantly seeking stimulation."

By stimulating the release of dopamine, amphetamines like Adderall keeps the brain from getting distracted by potential rewards in the environment -- from email alerts to nearby conversations to incoming text messages.

And here's a fun fact: Add four little atoms on the end of an amphetamine and you have a much more dangerous substance, methamphetamine (also known as meth). Yikes!

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Before You Go

Exercise Does A Brain Good
It Sharpens Thinking(01 of07)
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Earlier this year, Dartmouth researchers added support to mounting evidence about the way that exercise affects learning and mental acuity: it boosts the production of “brain derived neurotrophic factor" -- or BDNF – a protein that is thought to help with mental acuity, learning and memory. (credit:shutterstock)
It May Alleviate Childhood ADHD Symptoms(02 of07)
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In the same Dartmouth study, the researchers discovered that, thanks to the BDNF boost, exercise also helped to alleviate ADHD-like symptoms in juvenile rats. Since BDNF is involved in the brain's development and growth of new cells, the effect was more profound on the younger rats, with their still-developing brains and more rapid cell turnover, compared to adult rats. (credit:Alamy)
It Helps You Learn New Tricks(03 of07)
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Even one exercise session can help you retain physical skills by enhancing what's commonly known as "muscle memory" or "motor memory," according to new research published in PlosOne.As the New York Times reported, men who were taught to follow a complicated pattern on a computer and subsequently exercised were better able to remember the pattern in subsequent days than the men who didn't exercise after the initial squiggle test. (credit:AP)
It Supports Problem-Solving(04 of07)
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In one study, mice that exercised by running not only generated new neurons, but those neurons lit up when the mice performed unfamiliar tasks like navigating a new environment. (credit:Alamy)
It Helps Alleviate Symptoms Of Depression (05 of07)
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When you exercise, your pituitary gland releases endorphins to help mitigate the physical stress and pain you are experiencing. But those endorphins may play a more important and longer-lasting role: they could help alleviate symptoms of depression, according to a Mayo Clinic report. (credit:Alamy)
It Reduces Stress(06 of07)
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Although exercising raises our levels of cortisol -- the hormone that causes physical stress and is even associated with long-term memory impairment -- its overall effect is one of a stress reducer. That's because exercise increases the body's threshold for cortisol, making you more inured to stressors. (credit:Alamy)
It Helps Delay Age-Associated Memory Loss(07 of07)
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As we get older, an area of the brain called the hippocampus shrinks. That's why age is associated with memory loss across the board. However, profound memory loss -- such as in dementia and Alzheimer's disease patients -- is also contributed to by accelerated hippocampus shrinking. Luckily, the hippocampus is also an area of the brain that generate new neurons throughout a lifespan. And, the research shows, exercise promotes new neural growth in this area. (credit:Alamy)
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