This brief summarizes the working paper, "Understanding Motivation: Building the Brain Architecture That Supports Learning, Health, and Community Participation," which explains the science behind motivation--the "wanting" system and the "liking" system--as well as how those systems develop, and how that development…

Neuroscientific approaches to drug addiction traditionally have been based on the premise that addiction is a process that results from brain changes that in turn result from chronic administration of drugs of abuse. An alternative approach views drug addiction as a behavioral disorder in which drugs function as preeminent reinforcers. Although…