Abstract
Berridge, Robinson, and Aldridge summarise progress in parsing reward into three dissociable psychological components — ‘liking’ (hedonic impact), ‘wanting’ (incentive salience), and learning (predictive associations and cognitions) — and their separable neurobiological substrates, with implications for mood and motivation disorders.
Berridge, K. C., Robinson, T. E., & Aldridge, J. W. (2009). Current Opinion in Pharmacology, 9(1), 65–73. DOI
Key findings
- Three components — Reward = liking + wanting + learning, each separable in behaviour and brain.
- Wider ‘wanting’ circuitry — Brain substrates for wanting are more distributed and easily activated than the narrower hedonic ‘liking’ circuits.
- Clinical reach — Parsing the components clarifies disorders from depression to addiction and eating disorders.
When to open this
Open alongside Love and addiction split and Wanting versus liking for the three-part anatomy of reward. Club twin: Reward system designs conscious marks for completed effort beside recovery.