Remarkable scientific progress over the past five decades has helped us develop knowledge of how drugs of abuse induce pleasure, reinforce use, and lead to the compulsive self-administration we call ...

Addiction is one of the most common and consequential chronic medical conditions in the United States. Nationwide, more than 46 million people met the criteria for a substance abuse disorder as of ...

Addiction often isn’t about chasing pleasure—it’s about escaping pain. Researchers at Scripps Research have discovered that a tiny brain region called the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT) ...

Nicotine addiction remains one of the most persistent public health challenges worldwide, driven by changes in the brain that reinforce repeated use and make quitting extremely difficult. For decades, ...

People with substance use disorder—whether addicted to alcohol, cocaine, heroin, or nicotine—share a strikingly similar pattern of abnormal brain connections, particularly within the brain’s reward ...

Your endless scroll may be costing you more than just your time. New research shows it’s changing the way you think and make decisions. These days, almost everything is available in the form of quick, ...

While most prior studies have focused on brain-centric models of reward, some work has shown that gut-vagal signals have an effect on food-driven dopamine activity and eating behaviors. Yet it was ...