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Module 1.3b

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Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images © Daniel DeSlover/ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Stock Photo Lives lost to opioids Actor Angus

Copyright © Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
Cloud and musician Juice WRLD are
among those who have died of opioid
overdoses.

®
AP Science Practice Check Your Understanding

Examine the Concept Apply the Concept
▶ Which category of psychoactive drugs is known to calm ▶ Explain how alcohol’s effects can be influenced by our
neural activity and slow body functions? expectations.
Answers to the Examine the Concept questions can be found in Appendix C at the end of the book.

Stimulants

e

stimulants,
e
What ar

What ar
1.3-7 What ar e stimulants, and what ar e their ef fects?
1.3-7 What are stimulants, and what are their effects?

Stimulants excite neural activity and speed up body functions. Pupils dilate, heart and
breathing rates increase, and blood sugar levels rise, reducing appetite. Energy and self-
confidence also rise.
Stimulants include caffeine, nicotine, and the more powerful cocaine, amphetamines,
methamphetamine (also known as “speed”), and Ecstasy. People may use stimulants to feel
alert, lose weight, or boost mood or athletic performance. Some students resort to stronger
stimulant drugs in hopes of boosting their academic performance, despite these drugs offer-
ing little or no benefit ( Ilieva et al., 2015 ; Teter et al., 2018 ). Stimulants can be addictive, as
many know from the fatigue, headaches, irritability, and depression that result from missing
their usual caffeine dose ( Silverman et al., 1992 ). A mild dose typically lasts 3 or 4 hours,
so — if taken in the evening — a stimulant may impair sleep.
Tobacco products deliver highly addictive nicotine. Imagine that cigarettes and vaping were
harmless — except, once in every 25,000 packs, an occasional innocent-looking one was stimulants drugs that excite
filled with dynamite instead of tobacco. Not such a bad risk of having your head blown off. neural activity and speed up
But with 250 million packs a day consumed worldwide, we could expect more than 10,000 body functions.
gruesome daily deaths — surely enough to have cigarettes banned everywhere. 1

1 This analogy, adapted here with world-based numbers, was suggested by mathematician Sam Saunders, as
reported by K. C. Cole (1998).

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