Researchers discover a neural circuit that rewards gnawing behavior with dopamine, explaining repetitive oral habits in animals and humans.

Editor’s note: The podcast Chasing Life With Dr. Sanjay Gupta explores the medical science behind some of life’s mysteries big and small. You can listen to episodes here. (CNN) — If you are like many ...

Some people simply don’t derive pleasure from listening to music. There is nothing wrong with their hearing, and they enjoy plenty of other experiences, but for some strange reason music does ...

In our day-to-day lives, we're constantly making a slew of decisions, from immediate matters to prospects on the far horizon. But the evolutionary nuts-and-bolts of how our brains weigh these numerous ...

Cocaine addiction isn’t simply a failure of willpower — it’s the result of lasting biological changes in the brain.

Positive thinking may boost the body’s defenses against disease. Increasing activity in a brain region that controls motivation and expectation, specifically the brain’s reward system, is linked with ...

I was a third-year medical student at Northwestern on my ICU rotation the first time I saw a dopamine drip. The patient was pale and motionless, his blood pressure dropping by the minute despite large ...

Listening to your favorite music activates the brain's opioid system with pleasurable and analgesic effects. A Finnish study ...

A new doctoral dissertation shows that gambling disorder is linked to brain networks involved in self-control and brain reward functions. By combining several brain imaging methods, the research ...

This personalized menu of activities is designed to deliver a hit of dopamine to your system. Dopamine is a crucial neurotransmitter involved in our brain’s reward system. It plays a central role in ...