pleasure centers
Brain's joy hubs
Pleasure centers are regions of the brain that produce feelings of reward and satisfaction when stimulated.
The term comes from mid-twentieth-century neuroscience experiments showing that animals would repeatedly press levers to stimulate certain brain areas.
In popular usage, pleasure centers refers loosely to whatever neural mechanisms make something feel good: Chocolate activates the brain's pleasure centers.
- endorphinsBody's innate pain blockers
- happinessJoyful emotional state
- joyIntense positive emotion
- good vibrationsSensed positive atmosphere
- dopamineReward-linked neural messenger
bliss · reward system · erogenous zones · hedonism · instant gratification · basal ganglia · striatum · oxytocin · addiction · euphoria · neurotransmitters · limbic system · intrinsic motivation · brain chemistry · neural pathways · reinforcement learning · brains · prefrontal cortex
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