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401 Results Found

  • Article
  • Open Access
291 Views
19 Pages

12 December 2025

Background: Reward expectation is an important motivation for aggression. However, despite substantial progress in behavioral studies related to reward expectation in aggression, the neural basis underlying this process remains unclear. Methods: To i...

  • Review
  • Open Access
3 Citations
3,591 Views
12 Pages

The Contribution of the Brain–Gut Axis to the Human Reward System

  • Katerina Karaivazoglou,
  • Ioanna Aggeletopoulou and
  • Christos Triantos

The human reward network consists of interconnected brain regions that process stimuli associated with satisfaction and modulate pleasure-seeking behaviors. Impairments in reward processing have been implicated in several medical and psychiatric cond...

  • Review
  • Open Access
1,468 Views
13 Pages

Brain stimulation therapies may be used to correct motor, social, emotional, and cognitive consequences of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Neuromodulation applied with anatomical specificity can ameliorate desired symptoms while leaving functional circ...

  • Review
  • Open Access
28 Citations
9,570 Views
37 Pages

Neuroplasticity and Multilevel System of Connections Determine the Integrative Role of Nucleus Accumbens in the Brain Reward System

  • Martyna Bayassi-Jakowicka,
  • Grazyna Lietzau,
  • Ewelina Czuba,
  • Aleksandra Steliga,
  • Monika Waśkow and
  • Przemysław Kowiański

10 September 2021

A growing body of evidence suggests that nucleus accumbens (NAc) plays a significant role not only in the physiological processes associated with reward and satisfaction but also in many diseases of the central nervous system. Summary of the current...

  • Review
  • Open Access
1 Citations
3,893 Views
28 Pages

21 October 2025

Artificial sweeteners, or non-caloric sweeteners (NCSs), are widely consumed as sugar substitutes to reduce energy intake and manage obesity. Once considered inert, accumulating evidence now shows that NCSs interact with host physiology, altering gut...

  • Article
  • Open Access
18 Citations
6,631 Views
18 Pages

(1) Background: Reward responsiveness (RR) is a risk factor for high-risk behaviors such as aggressive behaviors and early sexual initiation, which are all reported to be higher in African American and low socioeconomic status adolescents. At the sam...

  • Commentary
  • Open Access
9 Citations
5,907 Views
26 Pages

Proposing a “Brain Health Checkup (BHC)” as a Global Potential “Standard of Care” to Overcome Reward Dysregulation in Primary Care Medicine: Coupling Genetic Risk Testing and Induction of “Dopamine Homeostasis”

  • Eric R. Braverman,
  • Catherine A. Dennen,
  • Mark S. Gold,
  • Abdalla Bowirrat,
  • Ashim Gupta,
  • David Baron,
  • A. Kenison Roy,
  • David E. Smith,
  • Jean Lud Cadet and
  • Kenneth Blum

In 2021, over 100,000 people died prematurely from opioid overdoses. Neuropsychiatric and cognitive impairments are underreported comorbidities of reward dysregulation due to genetic antecedents and epigenetic insults. Recent genome-wide association...

  • Review
  • Open Access
1 Citations
4,390 Views
22 Pages

Brain-stimulation reward, also known as intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS), is a commonly used procedure for studying brain reward function and drug reward. In electrical ICSS (eICSS), an electrode is surgically implanted into the medial forebrain...

  • Review
  • Open Access
21 Citations
27,440 Views
16 Pages

When “hijacked” by compulsive behaviors that affect the reward and stress centers of the brain, functional changes in the dopamine circuitry occur as the consequence of pathological brain adaptation. As a brain correlate of mental health,...

  • Review
  • Open Access
2 Citations
4,816 Views
52 Pages

A unified theory of emotion and motivation is updated in which motivational states are states in which instrumental goal-directed actions are performed to obtain anticipated rewards or avoid punishers, and emotional states are states that are elicite...

  • Commentary
  • Open Access
13 Citations
6,822 Views
16 Pages

Should Reward Deficiency Syndrome (RDS) Be Considered an Umbrella Disorder for Mental Illness and Associated Genetic and Epigenetic Induced Dysregulation of Brain Reward Circuitry?

  • Kenneth Blum,
  • Catherine A. Dennen,
  • Igor Elman,
  • Abdalla Bowirrat,
  • Panayotis K. Thanos,
  • Rajendra D. Badgaiyan,
  • B. William Downs,
  • Debasis Bagchi,
  • David Baron and
  • Eric R. Braverman
  • + 5 authors

14 October 2022

Reward Deficiency Syndrome (RDS) is defined as a breakdown of reward neurotransmission that results in a wide range of addictive, compulsive, and impulsive behaviors. RDS is caused by a combination of environmental (epigenetic) influences and DNA-bas...

  • Review
  • Open Access
65 Citations
23,701 Views
26 Pages

Food intake regulation in humans is a complex process controlled by the dynamic interaction of homeostatic and hedonic systems. Homeostatic regulation is controlled by appetitive signals from the gut, adipose tissue, and the vagus nerve, while consci...

  • Review
  • Open Access
18 Citations
15,296 Views
35 Pages

The functional interplay between the corticolimbic GABAergic and opioidergic systems plays a crucial role in regulating the reward system and cognitive aspects of motivational behaviors leading to the development of addictive behaviors and disorders....

  • Perspective
  • Open Access
5 Citations
4,295 Views
14 Pages

8 August 2022

Major depressive disorder is a leading cause of disability and suicide worldwide. Consecutive rounds of conventional interventions are ineffective in a significant sub-group of patients whose disorder is classified as treatment-resistant depression....

  • Review
  • Open Access
60 Citations
24,281 Views
14 Pages

Brain Connectivity Networks and the Aesthetic Experience of Music

  • Mark Reybrouck,
  • Peter Vuust and
  • Elvira Brattico

Listening to music is above all a human experience, which becomes an aesthetic experience when an individual immerses himself/herself in the music, dedicating attention to perceptual-cognitive-affective interpretation and evaluation. The study of the...

  • Review
  • Open Access
1 Citations
4,444 Views
17 Pages

Mechanisms of GLP-1 in Modulating Craving and Addiction: Neurobiological and Translational Insights

  • Gabriel Amorim Moreira Alves,
  • Masatoki Teranishi,
  • Ana Claudia Teixeira de Castro Gonçalves Ortega,
  • Frank James and
  • Arosh S. Perera Molligoda Arachchige

15 August 2025

Substance use disorders (SUDs) remain a major public health challenge, with existing pharmacotherapies offering limited long-term efficacy. Traditional treatments focus on dopaminergic systems but often overlook the complex interplay between metaboli...

  • Article
  • Open Access
19 Citations
8,054 Views
22 Pages

10 June 2014

Much of what we have learnt from rodent models about the essential role of epigenetic processes in brain plasticity has made use of aversive learning, yet the role of histone acetylation in aversive memory in the honey bee, a popular invertebrate mod...

  • Review
  • Open Access
22 Citations
6,177 Views
24 Pages

29 September 2021

Obesity is a complex disorder, and the number of people affected is growing every day. In recent years, research has confirmed the hypothesis that food addiction is a determining factor in obesity. Food addiction is a behavioral disorder characterize...

  • Perspective
  • Open Access
13 Citations
4,110 Views
18 Pages

More than a decade ago, deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the superolateral medial forebrain bundle (slMFB), as part of the greater MFB system, had been proposed as a putative yet experimental treatment strategy for therapy refractory depression (TRD)...

  • Review
  • Open Access
136 Citations
32,858 Views
39 Pages

From Belly to Brain: Targeting the Ghrelin Receptor in Appetite and Food Intake Regulation

  • Ken Howick,
  • Brendan T. Griffin,
  • John F. Cryan and
  • Harriët Schellekens

Ghrelin is the only known peripherally-derived orexigenic hormone, increasing appetite and subsequent food intake. The ghrelinergic system has therefore received considerable attention as a therapeutic target to reduce appetite in obesity as well as...

  • Review
  • Open Access
9 Citations
5,257 Views
15 Pages

11 June 2021

Obesity is highly prevalent in patients with schizophrenia and, in association with metabolic syndrome, contributes to premature deaths of patients due to cardiovascular disease complications. Moreover, pharmacologic, and behavioral interventions hav...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2 Citations
3,346 Views
10 Pages

Acupuncture Modulates Intracranial Self-Stimulation of the Medial Forebrain Bundle in Rats

  • Seong Shoon Yoon,
  • Jaesuk Yun,
  • Bong Hyo Lee,
  • Hee Young Kim and
  • Chae Ha Yang

Acupuncture affects the central nervous system via the regulation of neurotransmitter transmission. We previously showed that Shemen (HT7) acupoint stimulation decreased cocaine-induced dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens. Here, we used the int...

  • Review
  • Open Access
2 Citations
3,593 Views
20 Pages

17 October 2024

Advancing treatment to resolve human cognitive disorders requires a comprehensive understanding of the molecular signaling pathways underlying learning and memory. While most organ systems evolved to maintain homeostasis, the brain developed the capa...

  • Perspective
  • Open Access
14 Citations
4,408 Views
16 Pages

Frequency of the Dopamine Receptor D3 (rs6280) vs. Opioid Receptor µ1 (rs1799971) Polymorphic Risk Alleles in Patients with Opioid Use Disorder: A Preponderance of Dopaminergic Mechanisms?

  • Marjorie C. Gondré-Lewis,
  • Igor Elman,
  • Tanya Alim,
  • Edwin Chapman,
  • Beverlyn Settles-Reaves,
  • Carine Galvao,
  • Mark S. Gold,
  • David Baron,
  • Shan Kazmi and
  • Eliot Gardner
  • + 3 authors

While opioids are a powerful class of drugs that inhibit transmission of pain signals, their use is tarnished by the current epidemic of opioid use disorder (OUD) and overdose deaths. Notwithstanding published reports, there remain gaps in our knowle...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1,066 Views
22 Pages

29 January 2025

Background/Objectives: Experimental studies show that when an individual makes choices, they affect future decisions. Future choices tend to be consistent with past ones. This tendency matters in the context of ambivalent situations because they may...

  • Hypothesis
  • Open Access
4 Citations
2,845 Views
16 Pages

25 September 2023

Evolutionary theory is applied to recent neuroscientific findings on factors associated with risk-and-reward systems, and consequently, aspects of human decision making in spaceflight. Factors include enzymes aiding metabolic pathways of dopamine and...

  • Article
  • Open Access
10 Citations
9,572 Views
40 Pages

A Meta-Analysis of fMRI Studies of Youth Cannabis Use: Alterations in Executive Control, Social Cognition/Emotion Processing, and Reward Processing in Cannabis Using Youth

  • Christopher J. Hammond,
  • Aliyah Allick,
  • Grace Park,
  • Bushra Rizwan,
  • Kwon Kim,
  • Rachael Lebo,
  • Julie Nanavati,
  • Muhammad A. Parvaz and
  • Iliyan Ivanov

23 September 2022

Background: Adolescent cannabis use (CU) is associated with adverse health outcomes and may be increasing in response to changing cannabis laws. Recent imaging studies have identified differences in brain activity between adult CU and controls that a...

  • Review
  • Open Access
4 Citations
3,837 Views
13 Pages

Current Insights into the Potential Role of fMRI in Discovering the Mechanisms Underlying Obesity

  • Hanna Szmygin,
  • Maciej Szmygin,
  • Mateusz Cheda,
  • Bartosz Kłobuszewski,
  • Anna Drelich-Zbroja and
  • Beata Matyjaszek-Matuszek

29 June 2023

Obesity is becoming one of the major global health concerns. This chronic disease affects around 650 million people worldwide and is an underlying cause of a number of significant comorbidities. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) report...

  • Review
  • Open Access
7 Citations
4,851 Views
24 Pages

Neurotensin and Alcohol Use Disorders: Towards a Pharmacological Treatment

  • Francisco D. Rodríguez,
  • Manuel Lisardo Sánchez and
  • Rafael Coveñas

Harmful alcohol use is responsible for a group of disorders collectively named alcohol use disorders (AUDs), according to the DSM-5 classification. The damage induced by alcohol depends on the amount, time, and consumption patterns (continuous and he...

  • Article
  • Open Access
17 Citations
3,477 Views
11 Pages

Gut bacteria influence neural circuits in addiction-related behaviors. Given the association between opioid use, gastrointestinal distress, and microbial dysbiosis in humans and mice, we test the hypothesis that interactions between gut bacteria and...

  • Article
  • Open Access
18 Citations
5,351 Views
10 Pages

Fatty Acid Lingual Application Activates Gustatory and Reward Brain Circuits in the Mouse

  • Yvan Peterschmitt,
  • Souleymane Abdoul-Azize,
  • Babar Murtaza,
  • Marie Barbier,
  • Amira Sayed Khan,
  • Jean-Louis Millot and
  • Naim Akhtar Khan

6 September 2018

The origin of spontaneous preference for dietary lipids in humans and rodents is debated, though recent compelling evidence has shown the existence of fat taste that might be considered a sixth taste quality. We investigated the implication of gustat...

  • Article
  • Open Access
25 Citations
6,951 Views
20 Pages

24 April 2019

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions, motivating research into the underlying mechanisms. Olfaction is a powerful mediator of food consumption, and obesity has been associated with altered olfactory sensitivity. The current study used an event-re...

  • Article
  • Open Access
19 Citations
4,648 Views
22 Pages

7 November 2022

The main neurotransmitters in the brain—dopamine, γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), glutamate, and opioids—are recognized to be the most important for the regulation of aggression and addiction. The aim of this work was to study different...

  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
3,439 Views
19 Pages

The cannabinoid system is independently affected by stress and chronic ethanol exposure. However, the extent to which co-occurrence of traumatic stress and chronic ethanol exposure modulates the cannabinoid system remains unclear. We examined levels...

  • Review
  • Open Access
26 Citations
5,384 Views
14 Pages

Neuromedin U, a Key Molecule in Metabolic Disorders

  • Hitoshi Teranishi and
  • Reiko Hanada

Obesity is now a public health concern. The leading cause of obesity is an energy imbalance between ingested and expended calories. The mechanisms of feeding behavior and energy metabolism are regulated by a complex of various kinds of molecules, inc...

  • Systematic Review
  • Open Access
6 Citations
6,770 Views
16 Pages

26 February 2023

The debate on personality structure and behavioral addictions is an outstanding issue. According to some authors, behavioral addictions could arise from a premorbid personality, while for others, it could result from a pathological use of technologic...

  • Review
  • Open Access
46 Citations
7,462 Views
15 Pages

7 April 2021

Gut-brain signaling controls food intake and energy homeostasis, and its activity is thought to be dysregulated in obesity. We will explore new studies that suggest the endocannabinoid (eCB) system in the upper gastrointestinal tract plays an importa...

  • Article
  • Open Access
10 Citations
4,517 Views
17 Pages

Differences in Reward Sensitivity between High and Low Problematic Smartphone Use Adolescents: An ERP Study

  • Xinmei Deng,
  • Qiufeng Gao,
  • Lijun Hu,
  • Lin Zhang,
  • Yanzhen Li and
  • Xiangyu Bu

Background: Problematic smartphone use is highly prevalent in adolescent populations compared to other age groups (e.g., adults and young children). Previous studies suggested that higher levels of reward sensitivity were associated with problematic...

  • Review
  • Open Access
27 Citations
11,149 Views
18 Pages

15 February 2013

Tobacco smoking is the most frequent form of substance abuse. We provide a review of the neuroadaptive changes evidenced in human smokers with regard to the current neurobiological models of addiction. Addiction is thought to result from an interplay...

  • Article
  • Open Access
31 Citations
9,397 Views
19 Pages

14 June 2017

Classification is an important task of machine intelligence in the field of information. The artificial neural network (ANN) is widely used for classification. However, the traditional ANN shows slow training speed, and it is hard to meet the real-ti...

  • Review
  • Open Access
63 Citations
25,455 Views
25 Pages

Ultra-Processed Food, Reward System and Childhood Obesity

  • Valeria Calcaterra,
  • Hellas Cena,
  • Virginia Rossi,
  • Sara Santero,
  • Alice Bianchi and
  • Gianvincenzo Zuccotti

29 April 2023

Obesity and overweight are a major public health problem globally. Diet quality is critical for proper child development, and an unhealthy diet is a preventable risk factor for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), such as obesity. Consumption of sugar-sw...

  • Review
  • Open Access
2 Citations
6,956 Views
35 Pages

The Interplay Between Psychological and Neurobiological Predictors of Weight Regain: A Narrative Review

  • Małgorzata Moszak,
  • Justyna Marcickiewicz,
  • Marta Pelczyńska and
  • Paweł Bogdański

13 May 2025

Introduction: Obesity is a global health problem requiring effective interventions to achieve weight loss and maintain it in the long term. A major challenge for clinicians is weight regain (WR), defined as progressive weight gain following successfu...

  • Review
  • Open Access
34 Citations
11,937 Views
10 Pages

It is well known that exercise produces analgesic effects (exercise-induced hypoalgesia (EIH)) in animal models and chronic pain patients, but the brain mechanisms underlying these EIH effects, especially concerning the emotional aspects of pain, are...

  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
1,427 Views
17 Pages

26 November 2024

Changes in gene expression in carps’ brains over time following acute stressors has not been studied in detail so far. Consequently, a stress trial with juvenile common carp was conducted to investigate transcriptomic differences in four brain...

  • Article
  • Open Access
20 Citations
6,930 Views
14 Pages

Associations of Brain Reactivity to Food Cues with Weight Loss, Protein Intake and Dietary Restraint during the PREVIEW Intervention

  • Mathijs Drummen,
  • Elke Dorenbos,
  • Anita C. E. Vreugdenhil,
  • Gareth Stratton,
  • Anne Raben,
  • Margriet S. Westerterp-Plantenga and
  • Tanja C. Adam

15 November 2018

The objective was to assess the effects of a weight loss and subsequent weight maintenance period comprising two diets differing in protein intake, on brain reward reactivity to visual food cues. Brain reward reactivity was assessed with functional m...

  • Brief Report
  • Open Access
10 Citations
2,983 Views
8 Pages

Nucleus Accumbens Response to Reward among Children with a Family History of Alcohol Use Problems: Convergent Findings from the ABCD Study® and Michigan Longitudinal Study

  • Meghan E. Martz,
  • Jillian E. Hardee,
  • Lora M. Cope,
  • Katherine L. McCurry,
  • Mary Soules,
  • Robert A. Zucker and
  • Mary M. Heitzeg

Having a family history of alcohol use problems (FH+) conveys risk for alcohol use in offspring. Reward-related brain functioning may play a role in this vulnerability. The present study investigated brain function in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) ass...

  • Article
  • Open Access
18 Citations
4,696 Views
19 Pages

Food Reward Alterations during Obesity Are Associated with Inflammation in the Striatum in Mice: Beneficial Effects of Akkermansia muciniphila

  • Sabrina J. P. Huwart,
  • Alice de Wouters d’Oplinter,
  • Marialetizia Rastelli,
  • Matthias Van Hul,
  • Willem M. de Vos,
  • Serge Luquet,
  • Patrice D. Cani and
  • Amandine Everard

16 August 2022

The reward system involved in hedonic food intake presents neuronal and behavioral dysregulations during obesity. Moreover, gut microbiota dysbiosis during obesity promotes low-grade inflammation in peripheral organs and in the brain contributing to...

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