Tuesday, March 29, 2016

How your brain might be secretly thwarting your New Year's resolutions

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-02/jhu-hyb020416.php

Public Release: 11-Feb-2016
How your brain might be secretly thwarting your New Year's resolutions
Johns Hopkins University

The human brain is wired to pay attention to previously pleasing things -- a finding that could help explain why it's hard to break bad habits or stick to New Year's resolutions.

In the new issue of Current Biology, Johns Hopkins University neuroscientists demonstrate for the first time that when people see something associated with a past reward, their brain flushes with dopamine -- even if they aren't expecting a reward and even if they don't realize they're paying it any attention. The results suggest we don't have as much self-control as we might think.

"We don't have complete control over what we pay attention to," said senior author Susan M. Courtney, a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. "We don't realize our past experience biases our attention to certain things."

This could be why it's so hard for people to break the cycle of addiction and why dieters keep thinking about fattening food when they're trying to eat better.

"I could choose healthy food or unhealthy food, but my attention keeps being drawn to fettuccini Alfredo," Courtney said. "What we tend to look at, think about and pay attention to is whatever we've done in the past that was rewarded."

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Generally speaking, distractions tend to be bigger for people prone to addiction and smaller for people who are successful abstainers and people who are depressed and not caring about rewards, Courtney said.

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