Hedonic Hot Spot in Nucleus Accumbens Shell: Where Do Mu-Opioids Cause Increased Hedonic Impact of Sweetness?
Pecina and Berridge set out to find where in the brain pleasure is actually amplified, rather than where reward-related activity appears. Working in rats, they injected an opioid drug at many different points within one small brain structure, the medial shell of the nucleus accumbens, and measured two separate things: the facial reactions that indicate a sweet taste is being enjoyed, and how much the animal ate. The two came apart. Eating increased no matter where in the structure the drug was delivered, but the enjoyment of sweetness increased only from one small region, roughly a cubic millimetre at the front and top of the shell. Everywhere else, appetite rose without pleasure rising. The finding gave the field the term hedonic hotspot, and it is the anatomical evidence behind the wanting and liking distinction this vault uses constantly: the machinery that makes an animal consume more is broad and robust, and the machinery that makes consumption pleasurable is small and specific.
Pecina and Berridge set out to find where in the brain pleasure is actually amplified, rather than where reward-related activity appears. Working in rats, they injected an opioid drug at many different points within one small brain structure, the medial shell of the nucleus accumbens, and measured two separate things: the facial reactions that indicate a sweet taste is being enjoyed, and how much the animal ate. The two came apart. Eating increased no matter where in the structure the drug was delivered, but the enjoyment of sweetness increased only from one small region, roughly a cubic millimetre at the front and top of the shell. Everywhere else, appetite rose without pleasure rising. The finding gave the field the term hedonic hotspot, and it is the anatomical evidence behind the wanting and liking distinction this vault uses constantly: the machinery that makes an animal consume more is broad and robust, and the machinery that makes consumption pleasurable is small and specific.
Written from the abstract, OpenAlex.
What our sources record
Reproduced as it was written when this source was checked, figures and all.
Peciña, S. & Berridge, K. C. (2005). "Hedonic hot spot in nucleus accumbens shell: Where do μ-opioids cause increased hedonic impact of sweetness?" Journal of Neuroscience, 25(50), 11777-11786.
Where we use it
- Wanting Is Not Liking, Why We Engage
Reliability of this reference
The link below was matched against the publisher's record on title, first author and year, and all three agree.
The source
https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.2329-05.2005
DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2329-05.2005