That’s dopamine anchoring at work.  Dopamine anchoring is essentially a modern spin on classical conditioning. The idea is to ...

People who are depressed very often show reduced interest in experiencing or obtaining pleasure, a symptom called anhedonia that research has traced to dysfunction in the brain’s reward system. In ...

In our day-to-day lives, we're constantly making a slew of decisions, from immediate matters to prospects on the far horizon. But the evolutionary nuts-and-bolts of how our brains weigh these numerous ...

I was a third-year medical student at Northwestern on my ICU rotation the first time I saw a dopamine drip. The patient was pale and motionless, his blood pressure dropping by the minute despite large ...

Scientists may have found an explanation for why certain people are naturally more inclined to think ahead and imagine future scenarios, and it comes down to how the brain rewards itself for doing so.

A study published in Nature Medicine identified a link between the placebo effect and immune system function. In the experiment, individuals who generated positive expectations showed a stronger ...

A new study is challenging one of neuroscience’s most enduring ideas: that the brain’s reward system exists to make us feel good. Instead, researchers argue that it is built to optimize energy.

Self-criticism activated three brain regions involved in responding to threat or pain, including the amygdala, which helps ...

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 led by ...