fiogf49gjkf0d
Does pleasure get old?
They say youth is wasted on the young, but when it comes to pleasure chemicals in our brains, the opposite may be true. A study released today shows that there is a drastic change in how our brains respond to pleasure and reward as we age.
Interviewee: Karen Berman, National Institute of Mental Health.
Copyright © ScienCentral, Inc. Additional footage courtesy Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Dr. Karen Berman and her colleagues had young (mean age = 25) and older (mean age = 66) participants play a slot machine type game as their brains were scanned. The researchers varied the amount of the possible reward (from $0 to $20) and the probability of success (from no chance to a 75% probability).