Wanting... Liking..... It's Overwhelming!

[tanya]

Why 'Wanting' And 'Liking' Something Simultaneously Is Overwhelming

Wanting and liking are separate urges controlled by different brain circuits and when combined at once, the impact on the brain is especially powerful, according to University of Michigan research.



The U-M study reports that the brain divides wanting and liking into separate circuits for the same sweet reward. Natural heroin-like chemicals (opioids) in a few brain "pleasure hotspots" make individuals want to eat more of a tasty sweet food, and make them like its sweet taste more when they eat it, the study says. The same thing happens with addictions to drugs, sex, gambling and other pursuits involving "brain reward" circuits. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Michigan)

The U-M study reports that the brain divides wanting and liking into separate circuits for the same sweet reward. Natural heroin-like chemicals (opioids) in a few brain "pleasure hotspots" make individuals want to eat more of a tasty sweet food, and make them like its sweet taste more when they eat it, the study says. The same thing happens with addictions to drugs, sex, gambling and other pursuits involving "brain reward" circuits. The research is featured in the Journal of Neuroscience.

U-M psychology researchers Kyle Smith and Kent Berridge show that two different brain circuits carry out the wanting and liking for the sweet reward, even when both are triggered in the same brain pleasure hotspots.

"We typically want what we like, and like what we want," Smith said. "But these results suggest that wanting and liking are processed by distinct brain circuits and may not always go hand-in-hand."

Experimenters put an opioid drug (Damgo) into a pleasure hotspot in the brains of rats

[Redpb]

I need to take a nap now.

[Jaxx]

That is why I'm fat, I have a heroin-like chemicals (opioids) addiction and I need my fix!

[ericchile]

I swear when I first looked at that picture it was a biology picture of the female anatomy... lol

[Deathcricket]

Interesting read.