Chapter 7 Study Guide
Fundamentals of Drug Addiction

Key Concepts

• notion of specialized brain reward circuitry
• specific brain pathways underlying motivation and reward similar to systems underlying sensory and motor function
• what should we be looking for? (drive-reduction vs. incentive motivation neural substrate)
• characteristics of brain stimulation reward
• neural basis of brain stimulation reward
• medial forebrain bundle component (descending)
• ventral tegmental dopamine system component (ascending)
• integrative aspect of the ventral tegmental area (i.e., spatial & temporal summation)
• neural basis of psychomotor stimulant reward
• neural basis of opioid reward
• neural basis of other drug rewards
• neural basis of natural rewards (involvement of similar mechanisms)
• importance of convergent operations for theory development
• similarities between brain reward processes and traditional Freudian psychoanalytic theory