In many circumstances alternative courses of action and thoughts have to be inhibited to
allow the emergence of goal-directed behavior. However, this has not been the accepted …

Background: Several behaviors, besides psychoactive substance ingestion, produce short-
term reward that may engender persistent behavior, despite knowledge of adverse …

The ability to resist the urge to eat requires the proper functioning of neuronal circuits
involved in top-down control to oppose the conditioned responses that predict reward from …

Background Eating disorders are severe psychiatric disorders with a complex etiology
involving transactions among sociocultural, psychological, and biological influences. Most …

The current opioid epidemic is one of the most severe public health crisis in US history.
Responding to it has been difficult due to its rapidly changing nature and the severity of its …

Drug addiction and obesity appear to share several properties. Both can be defined as
disorders in which the saliency of a specific type of reward (food or drug) becomes …

Anxiety disorders constitute a sizeable worldwide health burden with profound social and
economic consequences. The symptoms are wide-ranging; from hyperarousal to difficulties …

Food is consumed in order to maintain energy balance at homeostatic levels. In addition,
palatable food is also consumed for its hedonic properties independent of energy status …

Objective: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by repetitive, ritualistic
behaviors and thought patterns. Although patients with OCD report that these compulsive …

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a group of complex multifactorial neurodevelopmental
disorders characterized by a wide and variable set of neuropsychiatric symptoms, including …