{"id":161601,"date":"2023-04-05T20:22:51","date_gmt":"2023-04-06T01:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/04\/danger-or-pleasure-how-we-learn-to-tell-the-difference"},"modified":"2023-04-05T20:22:51","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T01:22:51","slug":"danger-or-pleasure-how-we-learn-to-tell-the-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/04\/danger-or-pleasure-how-we-learn-to-tell-the-difference","title":{"rendered":"Danger or pleasure? How we learn to tell the difference"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/danger-or-pleasure-how-we-learn-to-tell-the-difference2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Deep within our brain\u2019s temporal lobes, two almond-shaped cell masses help keep us alive. This tiny region, called the amygdala, assists with a variety of brain activities. It helps us learn and remember. It triggers our fight-or-flight response. It even promotes the release of a feel-good chemical called dopamine.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists have learned all this by <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2022-10-junk-food-brain-cells-blame.html\">studying the amygdala<\/a> over hundreds of years. But we still haven\u2019t reached a full understanding of how these processes work.<\/p>\n<p>Now, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory neuroscientist Bo Li has brought us several important steps closer. His lab recently made a series of discoveries that show how <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/neurons\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">neurons<\/a> called somatostatin-expressing (Sst<sup>+<\/sup>) central amygdala (CeA) neurons help us learn about threats and rewards. He also demonstrated how these neurons relate to dopamine. The discoveries could lead to <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2018-05-scientists-brain-circuit-anxiety.html\">future treatments for anxiety<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/drug+addiction\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">drug addiction<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Deep within our brain\u2019s temporal lobes, two almond-shaped cell masses help keep us alive. This tiny region, called the amygdala, assists with a variety of brain activities. It helps us learn and remember. It triggers our fight-or-flight response. It even promotes the release of a feel-good chemical called dopamine. Scientists have learned all this by [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,19,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-chemistry","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161601\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}