A new brain connection discovered by University of California, Irvine researchers can explain how early-life stress and adversity trigger disrupted operation of the brain's reward circuit, offering a ...

A new study has identified a specific brain circuit that can push behavior into a compulsive “repeat mode,” forcing mice to ...

When faced with multiple food options and ultimately choosing one, the factors of that decision-making process may be more physiological than previously assumed. A group of scientists recently ...

New findings published in the journal Nature Neuroscience have shed light on a mysterious pathway between the reward center of the brain that is key to how we form habits, known as the basal ganglia, ...

Figure 8 from Copenhaver & LeGates (2024) visually represents the similarities and differences in how male and female mice strengthen synapses between the nucleus accumbens and hippocampus. The NMDA ...

The areas of the brain that process reward are activated when we make choices that make other people happy, as well as ourselves, a new study has found. Researchers at the Ludwig Maximilian University ...

Researchers have uncovered a mechanism in the brain that allows cocaine and morphine to take over natural reward processing systems. Mount Sinai researchers, in collaboration with scientists at The ...

Researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine and Tufts Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences have found a surprising connection between a fungus associated with alcohol use disorder and the ...

The concept of dopamine fasting has surged in popularity, particularly in high-performance environments like Silicon Valley. Proponents claim that temporarily abstaining from pleasurable activities ...

Dopamine is trending as the most popular neurotransmitter. And why not? There are days I think it rules the world or at least the day–to-day activities of my friends and family. The craving you have ...