Methamphetamine doesn't just spike levels of the pleasure-inducing hormone dopamine in the reward pathways of the brain—it ...

Is addiction a choice or a disease? A psychiatrist explains how repeated substance use changes brain reward and ...

New research has discovered that a neural circuit may explain procrastination. Scientists were able to disrupt this ...

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 ...

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 ...

The areas of the brain that process reward are activated when we make choices that make other people happy, as well as ourselves, a new study has found. Researchers at the Ludwig Maximilian University ...

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 ...

Adolescents have long engaged in high-risk behaviors and poor decisions. Now we know that it's got a lot to do with what's ...

Ever wonder why starting feels harder than finishing? Brain research shows stress can quietly block motivation before action ...