Researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine and Tufts Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences have found a surprising connection between a fungus associated with alcohol use disorder and the ...

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 ...

Ten years ago, popular psychology explained motivation quite simply: a person tries because he wants to have fun or avoid punishment. But modern neuroscience shows a more complex picture: our brain ...

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 ...

Some people bounce back from trauma, but others get caught in depressive loops that sap the joy from their lives. Researchers at UCSF find a brain signature of resilience in mice that suggests a new ...

In two separate studies, researchers learned more about the way that our brains respond to music. One study found that brain neurons synchronize with musical rhythms, while the other showed how ...

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 ...

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.