Kent Berridge is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Michigan, studying the neurobiology and brain systems underlying psychological processes like motivation, pleasure, craving, and addiction. His research has shown a dissociation between reward liking and reward wanting, and has led him to propose the Incentive Salience Hypothesis of dopamine, which states that dopamine mediates wanting and craving but not liking and pleasure. Contrary to popular belief, dopamine is not a pleasure molecule, and its psychological function remains highly controversial.
TIMESTAMPS
(00:51) – Dopamine
(02:59) – Is dopamine a pleasure molecule?
(09:11) – Liking vs wanting
(15:03) – Incentive Salience Theory
(18:22) – Dopamine and learning
(33:59) – Neurobiology and evolution of pleasure
(41:14) – Why people have different preferences
(45:09) – Experimental techniques and challenges
(51:05) – Pleasure in life
(54:26) – Advice for young scientists
