As young people reach adulthood, their preferences for sweet foods typically decline. But for people with obesity, new research suggests that the drop-off may not be as steep and that the brain's ...

On a recent episode of Extreme Weight Loss, the star was a young woman who was addicted to high-fat junk foods. To motivate her to change her diet, trainer Chris Powell volunteered to eat what the ...

We have long been told a simple story about reward: Dopamine is the "wanting" molecule that drives us toward goals, and opioids are the "liking" molecules that provide the hit of pleasure once we get ...

Some food smells are enough to lure you into a restaurant just to buy whatever you smell. However, these are more than just ...

A mouse stripped of its gut bacteria will binge on sugar water like it has never tasted anything sweet before. That ...

Deep within the brain, the ventral tegmental area does more than signal when we re rewarded it forecasts exactly when we ll be rewarded. This discovery came from an elegant collaboration between ...

A new study is challenging one of neuroscience’s most enduring ideas: that the brain’s reward system exists to make us feel good. Instead, researchers argue that it is built to optimize energy.