Most people with true cases of RDS fail to seek out treatment because they are already self-medicating with illicit substances. James Olds and Peter Milner implanted electrodes in the brains of rats and allowed the animals to press a lever to receive a mild burst of electrical stimulation, could cause rats to stop lever pressing by administering a dopamine antagonist, such as the discovery that dopamine antagonists seemed to reduce the rewarding qualities of drugs like amphetamines, disrupting this pathway in rodents that had become addicted to pressing a lever for brain stimulation or a drug reward caused them to stop lever-pressing, dopamine is involved in encoding memories about a reward (e.g. image showing the location of two main components of the reward system: the nucleus accumbens (red dot) and the ventral tegmental area (blue dot). In other cases, it may be more likely that the genetics lead an individual to seek out an addictive substance due to lack of reward. In addition to a blog that discusses science current events in a non-technical manner, you will also find a number of videos and articles that you can use to learn about basic principles of science and the brain. Their purpose is to attract talented individuals, motivate them and retain those that have a better fit with the organization. I think porn is one of these things for me that cause an even lower D2 receptor count. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Watch this 2-Minute Neuroscience video to learn more about the reward system. Note: Someone with RDS may have other addictions than simply what is listed above. But save your opinion for something you at least remotely know a little about. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2018.11.023. One of the rats in their experiment pressed a lever 7500 times in 12 hours to receive electrical stimulation here. They also suggest that individuals with the A1 allele should theoretically respond to D2 agonists. Among individuals with normative functioning in the reward center, these neurotransmitters work collectively to either excite or inhibit excitement which helps create feelings of well-being and pleasure from life. Due to the thrill seeking to feel the same level of reward as normal individuals, a person who is deficient in reward may finally feel some degree of pleasure from the addictive stimuli. Despite a history of more than a century of intense research in drug addiction, with currently available medication and behavioral therapy, the rate of relapse to drug use is 40–60 percent within a year after the cessation of treatment. Furthermore, disrupting this pathway in rodents that had become addicted to pressing a lever for brain stimulation or a drug reward caused them to stop lever-pressing, suggesting these areas are crucially important to the occurrence of addictive behavior.