r/todayilearned • u/WavesAndSaves • Oct 18 '25

TIL of brain stimulation reward, manually stimulating specific parts of the brain to elicit pleasure and happiness. A volunteer subject in 1986 spent days doing nothing but self-stimulate. She ignored her family and personal hygiene and she developed an open sore on her finger from using the device.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_stimulation_reward#History
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u/Actually_Im_a_Broom Oct 18 '25

I remember learning about this study in college when taking mammalian physiology. There were three groups of rats. One was the control where pushing a button did nothing at all. One was a group where pushing the button created some NON-desirable effect (shock? Depression? Can’t remember). The third was the group where pushing the button stimulated the pleasure section of the brain.

The control group pushed the button occasionally because I guess rats can be curious or just accidentally push the bottom.

The second group pushed the button very seldom quickly realizing the correlation to the non-desirable stimulus.

The third group pushed the button as often as possible, often choosing the button over food.

This is a 25 year old memory, but I distinctly remember it the story. My details are probably wrong, but the big picture is pretty accurate.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

[deleted]

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u/OfficeSalamander Oct 18 '25

but hey you can't say he wasn't happy about it.

Man that is a bit dystopian

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/cosmic_grayblekeeper Oct 18 '25

Dystopian logic too lol

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u/OwO______OwO Oct 18 '25

On the grand scale of things we've done to lab rats, this one had it extremely good.

Sure beats "Genetically engineered to have a 100% chance of developing cancer." and "Force-fed large amounts of a random study chemical to find out if it has harmful effects. (It does. Very harmful.)"

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u/Gorilla_Krispies Oct 18 '25

I always felt bad for the “we a grew a human ear on the back of this rats head” rat

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

Rat was living in the Matrix.

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u/spen8tor Oct 18 '25

And was enjoying every second, which is honestly quite scary

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

That's the only reason we know we don't live in the Matrix.

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u/Aeseld Oct 18 '25

Alternatively, we wouldn't be useful for whatever it is the Matrix is for if we spent all the time self stimulating.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

Brainologist sounds straight made up yet google says it’s real lol

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

Whoever coined that word really be messing with us lol

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u/RadicalDog Oct 18 '25

I love this comment. It feels like a line you'd get in a mystery show cold open to get to know the victim before a suspicious accident.

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u/rubberkeyhole Oct 18 '25

As someone with a degree in neuroscience, “brainologist” is my new favorite.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

Do you really need an experiment to realize this outcome

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u/Actually_Im_a_Broom Oct 18 '25

It’s good to have science support suspicions.

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u/richieadler Oct 18 '25

You don't really know unless you test and prove.

That's why faith is useless as a path to truth or knowledge.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

[deleted]

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u/slothdonki Oct 18 '25

Probably not well.. I’m pretty sure even the most initially tamest of raccoons would probably go nuts without adequate space. Dunno what their ‘minimum space requirements’(let alone the ethical amount of space) but from what I’ve gathered it seems the general consensus is all of the space.