Knowable Magazine asked Luna to share what she’s learned about the development of the brain’s executive-control system—and why we might not want to rush the process, even if we could.

Rutgers researchers have used neuroimaging to demonstrate that cocaine addiction alters the brain's system for evaluating how rewarding various outcomes associated with our decisions will feel.

More information: H. Haykin et al, Reward system activation improves recovery from acute myocardial infarction, Nature Cardiovascular Research (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s44161-024-00491-3 Provided by ...

The fundamental biological importance of rewards has created an increasing interest in the neuronal processing of reward information. The suggestion that the mechanisms underlying drug addiction ...

A common pathway in the brain that enables addictive drugs to hijack natural reward processing Date: April 18, 2024 Source: The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine ...

Instead of looking for general changes in the reward system, we can better relate specific changes, such as in appetite and body weight, to differences in the brain that help explain individual ...

Overall, this new study demonstrates that the dopamine system helps the brain to anticipate the occurrence and duration of unpleasant events, but without taking prediction errors into account.

Dopamine. The initial spark of attraction triggers the brain to release dopamine, activating the reward system. This leads to pleasure, excitement and motivation to pursue the person.

By using magnetic resonance imaging, the researchers showed that the direction of appetite changes associated with depression is linked to specific changes in the brain's reward system. For a long ...