Introduction It is increasingly important to recognize the reward and aversion systems of the brain as a functional unit. A fundamental task of the mammalian brain is to assign an emotional/motivational valence to any stimuli by determining whether they are rewarding and should be approached or are aversive and should be avoided. Internal stimuli are also assigned an emotional/motivational vale...

Introduction: Job stress is one of the main characteristics of modern life which is increasing and has been recognized as an important risk factor of cardiovascular diseases. The present study was conducted to determine the association between job stress at work environment and cardiovascular diseases. Materials and methods: A number of 300 persons including 150 cases and 150 controls were con...

This review gives an overview of our recent findings and developments in research on brain mechanisms of morphine reward from studies using the place preference conditioning paradigm. Intracranial place conditioning methodology has become a valuable and firmly established and very widely used tool in behavioural pharmacology and drug reward mechanisms. Several studies have established that morp...

This review gives an overview of our recent findings and developments in research on brain mechanisms of morphine reward from studies using the place preference conditioning paradigm. Intracranial place conditioning methodology has become a valuable and firmly established and very widely used tool in behavioural pharmacology and drug reward mechanisms. Several studies have established that morp...

This chapter describes a motivated learning (ML) method that advances model building and learning techniques required for intelligent systems. Motivated learning addresses critical limitations of reinforcement learning (RL), the more common approach to coordinating a machine’s interaction with an unknown environment. RL maximizes the external reward by approximating multidimensional value funct...

The effects of reward or reinforcement on preceding behavior depend in part on whether the person perceives the reward as contingent on his own behavior or independent of it. Acquisition and performance differ in situations perceived as determined by skill versus chance. Persons may also differ in generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. This report summar...

Here, it is argued that the interoceptive system, which provides information about the subject's internal state and is integrated in the insular cortex, and not the subcortical ventral striatum, is the critical neural substrate for reward-related processes. Understanding the internal state of the individual, which is processed via this system, makes it possible to develop new interventions that...

This chapter describes a motivated learning (ML) method that advances model building and learning techniques required for intelligent systems. Motivated learning addresses critical limitations of reinforcement learning (RL), the more common approach to coordinating a machine’s interaction with an unknown environment. RL maximizes the external reward by approximating multidimensional value funct...