How to activate the brain's reward system?

From the Guidelines

To activate the brain's reward system, engage in pleasurable activities like exercise, which releases endorphins and dopamine, as this has been shown to be a highly effective way to stimulate the brain's reward pathways, particularly in regions like the nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental area 1. The brain's reward system operates through neurotransmitters including dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins, which create feelings of pleasure and satisfaction. Some key activities that can help activate the brain's reward system include:

• Spending time with loved ones to stimulate oxytocin release
• Practicing mindfulness meditation for 10-15 minutes daily
• Listening to music you enjoy
• Eating small amounts of dark chocolate (70% cocoa or higher)
• Getting adequate sleep (7-9 hours nightly)
• Setting and achieving small goals throughout your day These activities naturally stimulate the brain's reward pathways and can improve mood, motivation, and overall well-being without resorting to substances that might artificially stimulate these systems in potentially harmful ways. It's also worth noting that contingency management (CM) plus community reinforcement approach has been shown to be an effective intervention for increasing the number of abstinent patients at the end of treatment, and also at 12 weeks and at longest follow-up, as seen in a systematic review and network meta-analysis 1. Additionally, transcranial electrical and magnetic stimulation (tES and TMS) may be a promising add-on treatment for non-substance-related addictive behaviors, such as gambling disorder, by normalizing endophenotypic markers and enhancing cognitive control through DLPFC stimulation 1. However, more research is needed to fully understand the effects of these interventions on the brain's reward system. Consistency with these practices is key to maintaining optimal brain reward function.

From the Research

Activating the Brain's Reward System

To activate the brain's reward system, several factors can be considered:

• Behavioral Activation (BA) is a treatment approach that helps individuals become more active in meaningful ways, increasing contact with positive reinforcement and reversing the cycle of depression 2
• Dopaminergic enhancement, such as through the use of pharmacological challenges, can increase striatal responses to reward and improve reward learning in depressed individuals 3
• Identification of the subventricular tegmental nucleus (SVTg) as a brainstem reward center, which can be activated to lead to place preference, reduced anxiety, and accumbal dopamine release 4
• Reward anticipation can enhance brain activation during response inhibition, with individual differences in sensitivity to reward (SR) modulating this interaction 5

Key Brain Regions Involved

The brain's reward system involves several key regions, including:

• The meso-limbic dopamine reward circuitry, which controls reward-motivated behavior in humans 6
• The medial and lateral Pre-Frontal Cortex (PFC), which integrate motivation and cognitive control during decision-making 6
• The dorsolateral PFC (dlPFC), which integrates and transmits signals of reward to the mesolimbic and meso-cortical dopamine circuits and initiates motivated behavior 6
• The thalamus and insula, which influence incentive processing in humans 6
• The subventricular tegmental nucleus (SVTg), which is a brainstem reward center 4

Factors that Influence the Reward System

Several factors can influence the brain's reward system, including:

• Individual differences in sensitivity to reward (SR) 5
• Genetics, which modulate motivation and reward 6
• Sex differences, with some evidence suggesting that male adolescents take more risky decisions than female adolescents 6
• Dopaminergic signaling, which can be enhanced through pharmacological challenges 3