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pleasure

This shows a woman in headphones and a brain.

·April 16, 2025·4 min read

Music-Induced “Chills” Trigger Natural Opioids in the Brain

Listening to favorite music activates the brain’s opioid system, which is involved in feelings of pleasure and pain relief, according to a new PET imaging study. Researchers found that music-induced “chills” are linked to the release of natural opioids in key brain areas.

Featured Neuroscience

·June 11, 2024·4 min read

Brain’s Dual Response to Pain and Pleasure Unveiled

Researchers discovered that the brain processes pain and pleasure through overlapping regions. By analyzing sustained pain from capsaicin and pleasure from chocolate, they identified distinct brain activity patterns linked to both experiences. These findings enhance our understanding of the brain’s mechanisms for emotional responses. The study could have implications for treating chronic pain and depression.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·September 18, 2022·7 min read

Cannabis Users No Less Likely to Be Motivated or Able to Enjoy Life’s Pleasure

Cannabis users show no difference in motivation for rewards, pleasure from rewards, or the brain's response to reward-seeking than non-cannabis users.

This shows the outline of a head and two faces

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·May 11, 2022·3 min read

Motivation/Pleasure Deficits, Not Expression Impairments, Contribute to Social Dysfunction in Schizophrenia Patients

Amotivation and anhedonia rather than expressive dysfunction play a critical role in determining social functioning in those with schizophrenia.

This shows a content woman laying in grass

Neuroscience

·April 14, 2021·6 min read

Women Describe Specific Techniques to Increase Their Own Pleasure

Survey study identifies four main techniques women feel enhance their sexual pleasure. Researchers say understanding the dynamics of pleasure and satisfaction experienced during sexual encounters is critical to good sexual health overall.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience Psychology

·April 12, 2021·5 min read

Profound Loss of Pleasure Related to Early-Onset Dementia

Study links anhedonia, or the loss of pleasure, to the early onset of frontotemporal dementia. Neuroimaging revealed symptoms of anhedonia were marked by atrophy in the frontal and striatal brain areas of those with FTD.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·November 3, 2020·5 min read

Your Favorite Music Can Send Your Brain Into a Pleasure Overload

Do you experience the chills when you hear your favorite song? Researchers used EEG to map brain activity while people listened to their favorite tunes. Findings reveal specific brain areas work together to process music, triggering the reward system and increasing dopamine release.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·January 18, 2020·2 min read

Music helps researchers find link between prediction and pleasure

Exposing subjects to music composed in an unfamiliar scale, researchers test whether reward can be derived solely from newly formed predictions.

This shows the location of the ventral pallidum in the brain

Featured Neuroscience

·December 31, 2019·3 min read

How the brain balances pleasure and pain

Different classes of neurons in the ventral pallidum control positive and negative motivations, sending opposing signals along a shared motivation-processing circuit.

Featured Genetics Neuroscience Psychology

·August 8, 2019·4 min read

Genetic variation contributes to individual differences in pleasure

What we find pleasurable may be down to our genetics. Researchers found nucleus accumbens activation and physical anhedonia were influenced by shared genes. The experience of pleasure and physical anhedonia also appear to share some of the same genes.

Featured Neuroscience

·December 10, 2018·6 min read

Dopamine’s Yin-Yang Personality: It’s an Upper and a Downer

Researchers shed light on the dual nature of dopamine, as a neurotransmitter that makes us seek pleasure and also reinforces avoidance of pain.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·December 4, 2018·6 min read

New Insights Into Loss of Pleasure in Depression

A new study reveals a brain region that contributes to anhedonia, the loss of pleasure, in those with depression. The study also shows how ketamine acts on this brain region, explaining why the drug appears to be so effective at treating anhedonia.