They found increased activity in the ventral striatum during acts of voluntary giving.
The game activated the ventral striatum, an important part of the brain's reward system.
*Editor's Note: The activity correlated with success occurred in the ventral striatum, not the insula, as originally reported.
The Disney ad elicited strong responses in orbito-frontal cortex and ventral striatum, two brain regions associated with processing of rewards.
Brain states of the kind that Wertheim and Sommers describe — that is, things like hormonal increases and changes in the ventral striatum — are indifferent to meaning.
If we cannot trust him to transcribe a quotation, why should we trust any of his scientific speculations about what the nucleus accumbens and the ventral striatum are up to?
It was as if their brains, which were accustomed to powerful rewards, were saying, "You call this silly prize a reward?" The same kind of indifference to basic rewards has been seen in the ventral striatum of cocaine addicts.
But all three labels also elicited some activity in the brain area associated with reward, the ventral striatum, as well as other regions related to desire and feeling connected.
They quickly zeroed in on a subcortical region called the ventral striatum, which has been implicated in the processing of various pleasures, from taking cocaine to eating ice cream to receiving cash gifts.
When the researchers compared the men's scans, they noticed that gentle stroking caused a drop in natural opioids in brain areas called the ventral striatum and the anterior cingulate cortex, which are mainstays of the brain's reward circuitry.
Neither reacted much to an Orioles-Blue Jays game, but when they saw their own team doing well, brain regions called the ventral striatum and nucleus accumbens were activated.
