We investigated differences in the intrinsic functional brain organization (functional connectivity) of the human reward system between healthy control participants and patients with social anxiety disorder. Functional connectivity was measured in the resting-state via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). 53 patients with social anxiety disorder and 33 healthy control participants unde...

fructose consumption has increased dramatically in the last 40 years, and its role in the pathogenesis of the metabolic syndrome has been implicated by many studies. it is most often encountered in the diet as sucrose (glucose and fructose) or high-fructose corn syrup (55% fructose). at high levels, dietary exposure to fructose triggers a series of metabolic changes originating in the liver, le...

Accumulating evidence from nonhuman primates suggests that midbrain dopamine cells code reward prediction errors and that this signal subserves reward learning in dopamine-receiving brain structures. In this issue of Neuron, McClure et al. and O'Doherty et al. use event-related fMRI to provide some of the strongest evidence to date that the reward prediction error model of dopamine system activ...

Some new constructions of parallelisms in PG(3, q) are given that produce parallelisms consisting of one Desarguesian spread and q + q derived Knuth semifield spreads and other types consisting of one Knuth semifield spread, one Hall spread and the remaining spreads are derived Knuth semifield spreads.

Reward cues have been found to increase the investment of effort in tasks even when cues are presented suboptimally (i.e. very briefly), making them hard to consciously detect. Such effort responses to suboptimal reward cues are assumed to rely mainly on the mesolimbic dopamine system, including the ventral striatum. To provide further support for this assumption, we performed two studies inves...

We consider a Markovian l-unit system which is subject to shocks causing it to deteriorate in each of its stochastically dependent components. The net reward produced by the system is assumed to be an l-dimensional function of the amounts of deterioration of the components. After every shock the controller has the option to replace the system by a new one. The objective is to maximize the long-...

Introduction: Natural rewards are essential for survival. However, drug-seeking behaviors can be maladaptive and endanger survival. The present study was conducted to enhance our understanding of how animals respond to food and morphine as natural and drug rewards, respectively, in a conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm. Methods: We designed a protocol to induce food CPP and compare it ...

The glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) system is a recently established target for type 2 diabetes treatment. In addition to regulating glucose homeostasis, GLP-1 also reduces food intake. Previous studies demonstrate that the anorexigenic effects of GLP-1 can be mediated through hypothalamic and brainstem circuits which regulate homeostatic feeding. Here, we demonstrate an entirely novel neurobio...

How do addictive drugs hijack the brain's reward system? This review speculates how normal, physiological reward processes may be affected by addictive drugs. Addictive drugs affect acute responses and plasticity in dopamine neurons and postsynaptic structures. These effects reduce reward discrimination, increase the effects of reward prediction error signals, and enhance neuronal responses to ...

The Recycling rate among developing nation is very low and the number of waste is increasing every day. Although many steps have been taken such as through national campaign, yet the recycle rate remains unchanged especially in Malaysia. Thus, the smart recycle bin is proposed to give a reward to public user who thrown the recyclable waste into the innovated smart recycle bin by giving points (...