Psychology 2054A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 3.5: Hierarchical Routing, Rivet, Brainstem

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2054A/B
• Professor: Foley

Document Summary

Liking" and wanting" food rewards: brain substrates and roles in eating disorders. Brain reward systems are active participants in the act of eating. Pleasure of sweetness is generated by neural system creating like". If the ability to unlock hedonic brain systems is lost, sweetness loses its pleasure. Pleasure must be translated into motivation or wanting in order for food reward to influence eating behaviour. Understanding brain reward systems for food- wanting vs. liking. Liking" is a hedonic reaction to pleasure of reward. Wanting" is not pleasure even though it may be a component of a reward. Wanting" is a process where stimulus representations in the brain have associations with reward- incentive salience . When incentive salience is attributed to a reward stimulus representation, it makes that stimulus and its associated reward become enhanced motivational targets. Incentive salience is triggered by reward cues- triggered wanting for reward.