New research reveals that the brain's reward system fuels a strong desire to learn about missed opportunities, even when such knowledge causes regret. The study found that people often choose to ...

Constant scrolling can shape attention, emotion regulation, and reward processing in the brain over time. Teens may ...

We have long been told a simple story about reward: Dopamine is the "wanting" molecule that drives us toward goals, and opioids are the "liking" molecules that provide the hit of pleasure once we get ...

The human body responds to music with the same reward system as more tangible pleasures associated with food, drugs and sex.

Using computational models, the researchers studied how the brain's reward-learning system functions in those with depression, especially among individuals experiencing anhedonia, the inability to ...

Targeting positive emotions directly via "Positive Affect Treatment" is more effective for depression than fixing sadness.

To learn more about our editorial approach, explore The Direct Message methodology. Denise Cortez hadn’t walked for exercise in eleven years. Not once. The 48-year-old paralegal from Tucson had a gym ...

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.

In a study in the Journal of Affective Disorders, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute scientists Pearl Chiu and Brooks Casas investigate how brain signals involved in reward learning might help ...