Reward and Punishment in the Brain (study covered by Steven Novella)

[HuckleB]

http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/reward-and-punishment-in-the-brain/#more-6875

"In a recent study, scientists looked at the brain with high resolution fMRI scanning while they showed subjects pictures. Following each picture was a painful electric shock, or a money reward, or no response, or a random response. Subjects quickly learned which pictures would be followed by which stimuli – positive, negative, neutral, or unpredictable.

Scientists do this sort of thing not because they like to torture people but to study the brain’s response. In this case they were particularly interested in a small deep structure called the habenula. What they found, for the first time in humans but consistent with prior animal research, is that the habenula would light up when subjects saw a picture that would be followed by a shock, and the activity in the habenula increased the more certain the subjects were that negative stimuli were following.

The researchers conclude that the habenula is a critical structure for the processing of negative stimuli, in fact it seems to be the hub of the neural network involved in learning to anticipate negative stimuli.

...

Specifically this helps us understand the neuroanatomical correlates of predicting negative outcomes. In animal research, hyperactivity in the habenula has been associated with depressive behavior. Further, deep brain stimulation of this structure has been used to treat depressive symptoms.

..."


Very interesting stuff, or so I think.

[longship]

1. Novella is a brilliant clinician. He trains physicians at Yale in treating neurological problems.

He is paid a salary -- and according to his brother, drives a shitty car.

But Dr. Novella still finds the time to host probably the longest continuing weekly science/skepticism podcast on the Net. There has not been a single week in many years that there's not been a new Skeptic's Guide to the Universe episode posted. And Steve post produces every single episode. The guy is an amazing force. And I am a huge fan of the SGU.

They did not even miss a week when one of their regulars (Perry DeAngelis) suddenly died in 2007. Here: http://www.theskepticsguide.org/podcast/sgu/109 (As Perry would have wished.)

Amazingly, the SGU has been going strong since May, 2005. Now 474 weekly episodes, over nine years. How many without missing a week? It has to be a podcasting record.

The best podcast on the Net.

Steve also has a Blog: Neurologica which he updates regularly. Plus, he is active in promoting Science Based Medicine (a term that he coined, and another Blog to which he contributes) to combat medical quackery like alternative medicine. (Hint: There is no alternative medicine. There's only medicine, based hopefully on science.)

I am a huge fan of Dr. Novella.