Analyzing the work of great philosophers and recent neuroscience research, researchers conclude certain simple features, such as symmetry and roundness, make things more attractive to us.
Researchers report distractions can detract from the experience of beauty, and sensuous pleasures can also be beautiful.
Researchers implicate the hippocampus and nucleus accumbens in decisions that call for delayed gratification.
Cannabis users show no difference in motivation for rewards, pleasure from rewards, or the brain's response to reward-seeking than non-cannabis users.
Mother rats respond much differently to cocaine than female rats that have never given birth, according to new University of Michigan research that looks at both behavior and brain chemistry.
Researchers shed light on the dual nature of dopamine, as a neurotransmitter that makes us seek pleasure and also reinforces avoidance of pain.
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.
A new article looks at the neuroscience of pleasure and considers why, in the pursuit of pleasure, we embark in some actions which are detrimental to our well being.
Different classes of neurons in the ventral pallidum control positive and negative motivations, sending opposing signals along a shared motivation-processing circuit.
According to researchers, the brain learns to reproduce brain activity patterns that lead to reward. The findings could lead to new avenues for treating addiction and OCD, researchers report.
Amotivation and anhedonia rather than expressive dysfunction play a critical role in determining social functioning in those with schizophrenia.
Exposing subjects to music composed in an unfamiliar scale, researchers test whether reward can be derived solely from newly formed predictions.
