Editorial: Neurobehavioral Mechanisms of Reward: Theoretical and Technical Perspectives and Their Implications for Psychopathology

Abstract

In summary, various basic and translational investigations, including those gathered in this issue and many others, are beginning to find common ground on the need to dissociate specific components of the brain reward system and their relationship with behavior. Although they mostly derive from very different perspectives (pharmacological, behavioral, genetic, epigenetic, computational. . . ), the results of these studies are beginning to fit together like the pieces of a puzzle, revealing a complex picture of the functioning of brain reward mechanisms. It shows that the mesolimbic dopaminergic system continues to play a key part (as a “primum inter pares”) but other systems also have a role. This supports the design of better-targeted treatments of the different neuropathological disorders in which these systems are altered.