Drug addiction carries an extremely high risk of relapse, as cravings can be reignited by minor stimuli even long after one has stopped using. Previously, this phenomenon was attributed to a decline in the function of the ...
Mar 10, 2026
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Researchers from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine) and Duke University have proposed a neuroscience framework explaining how different types of motivation fundamentally reshape ...
Jan 21, 2026
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Training people to activate a part of the brain linked to reward and positive expectations may be associated with an increase in the body's immune response to a vaccine. The findings from a study involving 85 participants, ...
Jan 19, 2026
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Methamphetamine doesn't just spike levels of the pleasure-inducing hormone dopamine in the reward pathways of the brain—it also provokes damaging brain inflammation through similar mechanisms.
Jan 18, 2026
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Apathy, social withdrawal, and loss of motivation—the so-called ''negative'' symptoms of schizophrenia—are among the most disabling and hardest to treat. A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) has uncovered the unexpected ...
Jan 13, 2026
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A new study investigating neuroinflammation in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the brain, a small, midbrain dopaminergic region, has found that acute and chronic depression are associated with distinct pathophysiological ...
Nov 18, 2025
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Extreme instances of stress can cause lasting changes to the brain itself. This could leave some people more vulnerable to addiction, a University of Mississippi study concludes.
Sep 29, 2025
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Researchers have found that even after recovery, individuals who previously experienced depression may retain a heightened sensitivity to negative cues and face challenges in regulating responses to potential punishment.
Jun 26, 2025
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A small region of the brain, known as the ventral tegmental area (VTA), plays a key role in how we process rewards. It produces dopamine, a neuromodulator that helps predict future rewards based on contextual cues. A team ...
Jun 5, 2025
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Researchers at the University of Tsukuba have found that thiamine (vitamin B1) tetrahydrofurfuryl disulfide (TTFD), a common thiamine derivative, can induce arousal. TTFD is chemically modified to improve tissue penetration ...
May 16, 2025
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