But the new study suggests that the neostriatum plays a role in the reward systems of the brain, too, DiFeliceantonio said.
It sells because it engages that pleasurable reward center of your brain.
FORBES: Neuromarketing: Tapping Into the 'Pleasure Center' of Consumers
The reward centers of the adolescent brain are much more active than those of either children or adults.
I've talked before in this column about the capability of Facebook and other social media to threaten relationships: They provide a sense of instant gratification that stimulates our brain's reward centers, offering quick hits of novelty that can be downright addictive.
Far more than the other models, sports cars excited areas of the brain associated with reward and reinforcement.
The urge to drink or take drugs is, neurochemically speaking, linked to endorphins (natural morphine-like molecules) or dopamine, a neurotransmitter that is involved in bits of the brain that control reward behaviour.
And those signs of potential reward will increase activation in the brain's reward area, which will make you take more financial risks.
However, this tool, too, has only limited applicability, as it cannot get at the central temporal node of the brain where much basic reward activity takes place.
Dopamine cells, for example, are involved in the brain's reward systems, generating feelings of pleasure.
In one application of optogenetics, scientists investigated how neurons that make dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain, may give rise to feelings of reward and pleasure.
"If you had a smoker compared to a nonsmoker and were able to do imaging study of the brain, the smoker would have billions more of the receptors in areas of the brain that have to do with pleasure and reward, " says Richard Hurt, an internist who heads the Mayo Clinic's Nicotine Dependence Center.
In the works, though, is something much more exciting: The use of topiramate, an anti-convulsive drug, which shows potential to correct brain chemical imbalances that trigger the cycle of craving and reward.
FORBES: Lindsay Lohan To Enter 90-Day "Lock Down" Rehab - Will It Work?
It shows how the brain is guided by its assessment of the threat versus reward content of every situation, person or conversation we experience, and how we regulate ourselves to deal with the results of this assessment.
The brain seems organized around the basic processes of minimizing threat and maximizing reward.
FORBES: Is What We Need From Leaders Prewired Into Our Brains?
Naltrexone impacts the brain's opioid receptors, which are involved in feelings of pleasure and reward.
"This strongly suggests they get similar feelings of satisfaction to humans who often complete brain-games for a feel-good reward, " she said.
Dr Wilson and Dr Daly speculate that the simple act of regarding beautiful women is able to engage and manipulate the male brain's reward centres.
Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston and the University of Iowa had targeted neurons in a part of the cortex the brain's outer layer associated with seeking a reward.
WSJ: Scientists Cast Light Onto Roots of Illness Deep in the Brain
After speculating that "art may give rise to feelings of well-being because it predicts biological rewards" by triggering certain reward pathways in the brain, Mr. Kandel notes that these are also activated when we enjoy a good meal or a satisfying sexual experience.
Generally, acts of self disclosure were accompanied by spurts of heightened activity in brain regions belonging to the meso-limbic dopamine system, which is associated with the sense of reward and satisfaction from food, money or sex.
应用推荐