Origins of pleasurable touch traced from skin to brain in mice
A parent's reassuring touch. A friend's warm hug. A lover's enticing embrace. These are among the tactile joys in our lives.
Jan 23, 2023
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Nervous System: News and Research on Ventral Striatum
MeSH tree: A08.186.211.200.885.287.249.487.775
Researchers gain a better understanding of how the most commonly used ADHD medication works
For decades, doctors have treated kids with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with methylphenidate, a stimulant drug sold as Ritalin and Concerta, making it one of the most widely prescribed medications aimed ...
Dec 8, 2022
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How the nucleus accumbens mediates positive and negative motivational valence
Reward-seeking and threat avoidance are critical for survival. Pursuing enjoyable things triggers the release of dopamine in the brain, making people feel pleasure. In contrast, people subconsciously avoid unpleasant feelings ...
Nov 14, 2022
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Motivation is affected by oxidative stress, but nutrition can help
In life, motivation can be the difference between success and failure, goal-setting and aimlessness, well-being and unhappiness. And yet, becoming and staying motivated is often the hardest step, a problem which has prompted ...
Nov 7, 2022
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Serotonin key to social aversion during withdrawal from opioids in mice
The acute physical illness characterizing opioid withdrawal is tough enough to endure even with full family, community, and medical support—so it is a brutal and sometimes deadly irony that one of withdrawal's salient symptoms ...
Nov 4, 2022
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Novel deep learning method may help predict cognitive function
Northwestern investigators have developed a deep learning-based method that can predict cognitive function capacity based on brain shape and structure, detailed in a study published in Scientific Reports.
Nov 4, 2022
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How early fears play a role in future anxiety, depression
A recent imaging study led by a scientist at The University of Texas at Dallas has identified early risk factors linked to children's temperament and a neural process that could foretell whether an individual might develop ...
Oct 26, 2022
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Brain's sensitivity to different types of regret may impact mood disorders like depression
Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have learned that the way the brain processes the complex emotion of regret may be linked to an individual's ability to cope with stress, and altered in psychiatric ...
Oct 19, 2022
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Unraveling the reward behavior: Mechanisms underlying the dopamine signaling pathway
One part of the basal ganglia, known as the nucleus accumbens (NAc), is composed of medium spiny neurons (MSNs). The MSNs, in which the dopamine D1 receptor (D1R) and dopamine D2 receptor (D2R) express, are controlled by ...
Sep 29, 2022
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Reward enhances connectivity between the ventral striatum and the default mode network
Researchers have reported findings that add to our knowledge of how human behavior may be shaped by the default mode network, a specific network of brain regions with both resting and task-related states. The article, "Reward ...
Sep 16, 2022
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