Dr. Kent Berridge

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525 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Aug 2026 last heard 4 Aug

Dr. Kent Berridge’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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We're Out of Time · Wanting vs Liking: Why Addiction Isn't About Pleasure | Dr. Kent Berridge · 4 Aug 2026 podcast

So in the animal studies, absolutely supports the human anecdotes.

It works to suppress these cravings.

Well, the mesolimbic system that's really generating the wants, it's mostly below the cortex, not entirely, but say, you know, 75% below the cortex.

But there are parts of the cortex, the frontal cortex, that can participate in this too, in the orbital frontal cortex and insula cortex, parts of the human in the very front and a little bit to the side of the frontal lobe.

These can connect up and participate too.

And these also would be, I think, showing suppressed responses.

I mean, that'll be mostly in the human fMRI studies to see that suppression of that Q-induced craving responses.

But I think that's happening.

Well, the intensity of these sensitized ones, in my view, can become compulsive, rising to an intensity that is arguably compulsive.

Now, that's a controversial assertion.

As an example, in the last two years, there are two books by very good philosophers.

Owen Flanagan is a philosopher at Duke University, and he's a former recovered alcoholic and benzodiazepine user himself.

And Hannah Picard at Johns Hopkins University, both of their books in this last two years argue that addiction is not compulsive.

The reason they do that is they say, well, addicts, they can postpone drug use if they have to in a circumstance.

If you reward them for not taking drugs, they might reduce their drug taking and to earn the rewards.

If you have fairly severe punishment for taking drugs.

Well, I absolutely agree with you on that point, both for some animal experimental evidence that we have and some human evidence from other domains.

The animal evidence is we can – recently we've been trying to get a sense of not only what controls the intensity of wants but also what controls the target of wants.

Why does one person want this drug or that drug?

Why do some people become addicted to drugs and others to sex and gambling and things of that sort?

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