The Incentive-Sensitization Theory of Addiction 30 Years On
Robinson and Berridge revisit the incentive-sensitisation theory of addiction thirty years after they proposed it, and the review is useful precisely because it engages with the objections. The original claim was twofold: that the brain's dopamine systems generate wanting rather than liking, and that in some people repeated drug use leaves those systems lastingly sensitised, so wanting is amplified while pleasure is not. Here they set the theory against its rivals, including accounts based on withdrawal and opponent processes, accounts based on habit, and accounts based on failures of impulse control in the prefrontal cortex. They take on the criticisms directly, including whether craving really matters in addiction and whether addiction can properly be called compulsive. They then extend the argument to current questions: behavioural addictions, the addiction-like syndrome that appears in some Parkinson's patients on dopamine medication, the way attention is captured by cues, and the role of uncertainty in driving wanting. This is the best single citation for the theory in its current form.
Robinson and Berridge revisit the incentive-sensitisation theory of addiction thirty years after they proposed it, and the review is useful precisely because it engages with the objections. The original claim was twofold: that the brain's dopamine systems generate wanting rather than liking, and that in some people repeated drug use leaves those systems lastingly sensitised, so wanting is amplified while pleasure is not. Here they set the theory against its rivals, including accounts based on withdrawal and opponent processes, accounts based on habit, and accounts based on failures of impulse control in the prefrontal cortex. They take on the criticisms directly, including whether craving really matters in addiction and whether addiction can properly be called compulsive. They then extend the argument to current questions: behavioural addictions, the addiction-like syndrome that appears in some Parkinson's patients on dopamine medication, the way attention is captured by cues, and the role of uncertainty in driving wanting. This is the best single citation for the theory in its current form.
Written from the abstract, OpenAlex.
What our sources record
Reproduced as it was written when this source was checked, figures and all.
76, 29-58. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-011624-024031
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/10.1146/annurev-psych-011624-024031
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-psych-011624-024031