Fluctuations in sex hormone levels during women's menstrual cycles affect the responsiveness of their brains' reward circuitry, an imaging study at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a ...

Both animals and humans are motivated to seek natural rewards to feel pleasure but also avoid unpleasant and aversive stimuli that predict pain, loss and danger. Disruption of reward-related neural ...

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 ...

Researchers have identified one of the key brain circuits for deciding the value of a reward based on the rewards that others have received, known as socially subjective reward valuation. A better ...

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have created a single-nucleus RNA-sequencing resource to generate molecular signatures of cell types in five key regions of the human brain ...

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 ...

Why do so many people relapse after quitting cocaine? A new study from The Hebrew University reveals that a specific "anti-reward" brain circuit becomes hyperactive during withdrawal-driving ...

Romantic love is often described as a feeling, but brain imaging suggests it is also a long running neural project that reshapes how we experience reward, stress and safety. When infatuation settles ...

“May the muse be with you.” How many times have you recited that line when encouraging others struggling with how to write something? How often have you yourself wished you could channel your muse to ...

Okazaki, Japan – Although you might never have consciously considered it, it’s very likely that when you receive a reward, part of the value that you place on it depends on what other people have ...