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Timing models of reward learning and core addictive processes in the brain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2008

Don Ross
Affiliation:
Finance, Economics and Quantitative Methods, Department of Philosophy, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294-1260 Department of Economics, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa. don.ross@uct.ac.zahttp://www.uab.edu/philosophy/ross.htmlhttp://www.commerce.uct.ac.za/Economics/staff/dross/default.asp

Abstract

People become addicted in different ways, and they respond differently to different interventions. There may nevertheless be a core neural pathology responsible for all distinctively addictive suboptimal behavioral habits. In particular, timing models of reward learning suggest a hypothesis according to which all addiction involves neuroadaptation that attenuates serotonergic inhibition of a mesolimbic dopamine system that has learned that cues for consumption of the addictive target are signals of a high-reward-rate environment.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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