Dopamine's Role in Reward: The Case for Incentive Salience

These flashcards summarize the lecture content on dopamine and its role in reward, with a focus on the concepts of incentive salience, learning, and hedonia.

Dopamine

A neurotransmitter that plays a major role in mediating reward and pleasure.

Incentive Salience

The motivational value attributed to reward-related stimuli, which increases the desire for those rewards.

Hedonia Hypothesis

The theory proposing that dopamine mediates the pleasure derived from rewards.

Learning Hypothesis

The theory suggesting that dopamine is involved in the learning processes related to rewards and predictions.

Wanting vs. Liking

'Wanting' refers to the motivation to obtain rewards, while 'liking' refers to the pleasure derived from them.

Mesolimbic Dopamine System

The neural circuitry involving dopamine that is central to the experience of reward.

Conditioned Stimuli (CS)

Stimuli that elicit a response due to their association with an unconditioned stimulus.

Unconditioned Stimuli (UCS)

In reward systems, stimuli that naturally elicit a response without prior conditioning.

Prediction Error

The difference between expected and received rewards, which plays a role in learning and dopamine function.

Neuroanatomical Subsystems

Different neural pathways and structures in the brain that are involved in specific motivational processes.