Evidence that the reward system realizes pleasure comes principally from the fact that its activity coincides with pleasure (reviewed in Berridge 2003), and from the fact that stimulating the reward system (via drugs or electrodes) is known to cause pleasure (classics of this literature are reviewed in Stellar and Stellar 1985).
The values that represent this system are pleasure, excitement, sexuality and sensuality (Pereira et al. 2004a, b, c, 2005).
And rather than there being any single local or distributed neural system for pleasure, there may well be a plurality of positive affective systems of mind and brain that do the job of engaging us in different activities in different ways.
A grim kind of reality television is now broadcasting daily from the White House; we are all more conscious that our systems of pleasure darkly mirror our systems of dominance.
Three of the mixtapes in his "Trash In The Bassment" series are available at his MySpace page; all are swift, varied, well-curated and reliable delivery systems of pleasure.
Participants who did not report pleasurable states in response to a particular excerpt did not show any significant changes in psychophysiological arousal, whereas others who found those same excerpts pleasurable showed a distinct profile of increasing sympathetic nervous system activity as pleasure increased.
Most of Bilbao is easily navigated on foot, although, the new metro system is a pleasure to ride.
What is needed for the treatment of so-called female hypoactive sexual desire disorder, researchers decided, is a reasonably safe and effective drug that acts on the central nervous system, on the pleasure centers of the brain or the sensory circuitry that serves them.
They're thriving because they touch a special part of the limbic system that gains pleasure and increases reproductive potential by showing off biologically or financially expensive things – nice abs and Chanel purses included.
Ikemoto and Panksepp 1999 also give a balanced synthesis, but from the other side of the debate about the direct hedonic importance of mesolimbic dopamine, also described as a seeking rather than pleasure system in Panksepp 1998.
