For many people, the thought of a tasty burger or a cold pint of beer conjures up a vivid mental image and drives behaviour. This link between thinking and doing serves a clear function – it motivates ...

Methamphetamine doesn't just spike levels of the pleasure-inducing hormone dopamine in the reward pathways of the brain—it also provokes damaging brain inflammation through similar mechanisms. Meth is ...

Why do so many people relapse after quitting cocaine? A new study from The Hebrew University reveals that a specific "anti-reward" brain circuit becomes hyperactive during withdrawal-driving ...

Recent evidence suggests that a single dose of the psychedelic compound psilocybin reduces the drive to seek out rewards, ...

You reach for your phone the moment you wake up, scroll through social media while drinking coffee, check notifications during every spare moment, and fall asleep with your device in hand. This ...

Cannabis potency and use among teenagers has increased in recent years. Researchers are looking at the risks of smoking and ...

GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy may reduce alcohol intake and other addictive behaviours as well as appetite. Researchers think the lateral septum, a brain region involved in reward and memory, ...

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, ...

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 ...