Neuroscience

Their finding is part of wider realization in the neuroscience community, that our brain does not simply react to what comes in through our senses. Instead, we have a predictive brain, that permanently predicts what comes next. The expected sensory input is then suppressed. We see the world from the inside out, rather than from the outside in.

Of... See more

Learned helplessness, the failure to escape shock induced by uncontrollable aversive events, was discovered half a century ago. Seligman and Maier (1967) theorized that animals learned that outcomes were independent of their responses—that nothing they did mattered – and that this learning undermined trying to escape. The mechanism of learned... See more

Together, wanting and liking encourage us to pursue rewards. But these sensations can also stand alone, creating situations where you might know that you enjoy something but don’t want to go after it, or where you might have a strong desire for something that you don’t get much pleasure from.