A Peek Into Opioid Users’ Brains as They Try to Quit

Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, works in the MRI lab at the National Institutes of Health’s research hospital in Bethesda, Md., on May 16, 2019. AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

BETHESDA, Md.—Lying inside a scanner, the patient watched as pictures appeared one by one: A bicycle. A cupcake. Heroin.

Outside, researchers tracked her brain’s reactions to the surprise sight of the drug she'd fought to kick.