Key details of the way nerve cells in the brain remember pleasure are revealed in a study by University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) researchers published today in the journal Nature Neuroscience. The molecular events that form such "reward memories" appear to differ from those created by drug addiction, despite the popular theory that addiction hijacks normal reward pathways.
How the brain remembers pleasure: Implications for addiction
Jeremy J Day, Daniel Childs, Mikael C Guzman-Karlsson, Mercy Kibe, Jerome Moulden, Esther Song, Absar Tahir, J David Sweatt. DNA methylation regulates associative reward learning. Nature Neuroscience, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nn.3504