For decades, psychologists have viewed the neurotransmitter dopamine as a double-edged sword: released in the brain as a reward to train us to seek out pleasurable experiences, but also a "drug" the constant pursuit of which ...
Dec 10, 2018
0
569
University of Tsukuba researchers report the importance of the brain's dopaminergic system for inhibiting already-planned actions. They trained monkeys to redirect their gaze toward targets presented on a screen, apart from ...
Nov 9, 2018
0
149
Two novel drugs kickstart motivation in rats suffering from apathy and a lack of oomph, UConn researchers reported at the Society for Neuroscience conference in San Diego on Nov. 5.
Nov 8, 2018
1
43
Imagine a herd of deer grazing in the forest. Suddenly, a twig snaps nearby, and they look up from the grass. The thought of food is forgotten, and the animals are primed to respond to any threat that might appear.
Nov 8, 2018
0
74
How does our nervous system motivate us to get off the sofa and walk to the fridge, or even to the supermarket, to get food? A research team led by Alexander Gottschalk from Goethe University investigated this using the threadworm ...
Nov 5, 2018
0
2
Scientists have made a major advance in untangling the brain circuits that lead to the powerful addictive effects of heroin, a study in the open-access journal eLife reports.
Oct 30, 2018
1
213
(HealthDay)—A new gene therapy might help improve motor symptoms in people with Parkinson's disease who aren't responding to other therapies, an early study has found.
Oct 25, 2018
0
13
One of the many challenges with battling alcohol addiction and other substance abuse disorders is the risk of relapse, even after progress toward recovery. Even pesky fruit flies have a hankering for alcohol, and because ...
Oct 25, 2018
0
105
A trial for a new gene therapy, known as AXO-Lenti-PD, aimed at improving the supply of dopamine in the brains of people with Parkinson's disease has been launched by researchers at UCL and University College London Hospitals ...
Oct 25, 2018
0
3
When alcohol enters the brain, it causes neurons in a specialized region called the ventral tegmental area, or VTA—also known as the "pleasure center"—to release dopamine, a neurotransmitter that produces those feel-good ...
Oct 22, 2018
1
397
