It is becoming clearer how neurobiological mechanisms generate 'liking'and
'wanting'components of food reward. Mesocorticolimbic mechanisms that enhance …

Reward contains separable psychological components of learning, incentive motivation and
pleasure. Most computational models have focused only on the learning component of …

Rewards are both “liked” and “wanted,” and those 2 words seem almost interchangeable.
However, the brain circuitry that mediates the psychological process of “wanting” a particular …

Anhedonia, or loss of interest or pleasure in usual activities, is characteristic of depression,
some types of anxiety, as well as substance abuse and schizophrenia. Anhedonia is a …

I review the brain disease model of addiction promoted by medical, scientific, and clinical
authorities in the US and elsewhere. I then show that the disease model is flawed because …

Affective neuroscience aims to understand how affect (pleasure or displeasure) is created by
brains. Progress is aided by recognizing that affect has both objective and subjective …

Evidence supports at least two methods for learning about reward and punishment and
making predictions for guiding actions. One method, called model-free, progressively …

In recent years significant progress has been made delineating the psychological
components of reward and their underlying neural mechanisms. Here we briefly highlight …

The ventral pallidum (VP) plays a critical role in the processing and execution of motivated
behaviors. Yet this brain region is often overlooked in published discussions of the …

What we eat, when and how much, all are influenced by brain reward mechanisms that
generate “liking” and “wanting” for foods. As a corollary, dysfunction in reward circuits might …