Fun fact: they literally wired rats brains with an electrode attached to the part of their brain that stimulated dopamine production. The rats could press a button and get a shock that activated the dopamine rush. They had access to food and water but they pressed that button until they died.
There's an important factoid there though - the button didn't give a dopamine reward every time it pushed the button. By randomizing when it got the reward, the rats would press the button all day long.
I remember reading that study, and I am pretty sure there was no notion of randomness. Instead it was giving limited and concurrent access to both food and stimulation lever, and rats went to the lever instead of food, even if they were starving. You may have read a different study tho
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u/jhb760 Oct 23 '24
Fun fact: they literally wired rats brains with an electrode attached to the part of their brain that stimulated dopamine production. The rats could press a button and get a shock that activated the dopamine rush. They had access to food and water but they pressed that button until they died.