![]() ![]() In a sense, pleasure can be thought of as evolution’s boldest trick, serving to motivate an individual to pursue rewards necessary for fitness, yet in modern environments of abundance also inducing maladaptive pursuits such as addictions. In this article we discuss some of these new findings, including 1) separation of reward liking, wanting, and learning mechanisms in mesocorticolimbic circuitry 2) identification of overlap in neural circuitry underlying sensory pleasures and higher pleasures 3) identification of particular sites in prefrontal limbic cortex that encode pleasure impact 4) mapping of surprisingly localized causal hedonic hotspots that generate amplifications of pleasure reactions 5) discovery that nucleus accumbens (NAc) hotspot and coldspot mechanisms are embedded in an anatomically-tuned keyboard organization of generators in nucleus accumbens that extends beyond reward liking and wanting to negative emotions of fear and disgust and 6) identification of multiple neurochemical modes within NAc mechanisms that can retune keyboard generators into flipping between oppositely-valenced motivations of desire and dread. The crucial test of this proposition is: can affective neuroscience produce important new conclusions into how brain systems mediate hedonic impact? Evidence in support of this, we think, now exists in the form of recent findings. In our view, a neuroscience of pleasure can be pursued as successfully as the neuroscience of perception, learning, cognition or other well-studied psychological functions. For example, LeDoux’s recent recommendation that affective neuroscientists should focus only on behavioral affective reactions, rather than on subjective emotions, shares those earlier concerns ( LeDoux, 2014). However, progress in the past 50 years proves that many complex psychological processes involving subjective experience can be successfully studied and related to underlying brain mechanisms. Early doubts stemmed from behaviorist convictions that only objective behavioral-neural reactions were eligible for scientific study, and never subjective experiences (including the experience of pleasure). ![]() Conversely, affective disorders can induce either the pathological absence of pleasure reactions (as in clinical anhedonia), or the presence of excessive displeasure (dysphoric emotions such as pain, disgust, depression, anxiety, or fear).īut is a neuroscience of pleasure feasible? Doubts that pleasure might be scientifically understood have been expressed for over a century. Capacity for normal pleasure is essential to healthy psychological function or well-being. Today hedonic refers to sensory pleasures as well as many higher types of pleasure (e.g., cognitive, social, aesthetic, and moral).Ī goal of affective neuroscience is to understand how brain mechanisms generate pleasures, and also displeasures, and eventually find more effective treatments for affective disorders ( Anderson and Adolphs, 2014 Damasio and Carvalho, 2013 Haber and Knutson, 2010 Heller et al., 2013 Kringelbach and Berridge, 2010 Panksepp, 2011). The English word hedonic comes originally from the ancient Greek for pleasure (ἡ δονή in Latin script : hédoné), in turn derived from the word for “sweet” (ἡ δύς, or hēdús). These emerging insights into brain pleasure mechanisms may eventually facilitate better treatments for affective disorders. In contrast, some of the best known textbook candidates for pleasure generators, including classic pleasure electrodes and the mesolimbic dopamine system, may not generate pleasure after all. Those hotspots also can be embedded in broader anatomical patterns of valence organization, such as in a keyboard pattern of nucleus accumbens generators for desire versus dread. Liking, or pleasure itself, is generated by a smaller set of hedonic hotspots within limbic circuitry. Wanting for rewards is generated by a large and distributed brain system. Human neuroimaging studies indicate that surprisingly similar circuitry is activated by quite diverse pleasures, suggesting a common neural currency shared by all. In affective disorders anhedonia (lack of pleasure) or dysphoria (negative affect) can result from breakdowns of that hedonic system. Pleasure is mediated by well-developed mesocorticolimbic circuitry, and serves adaptive functions. ![]()
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