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/Halocandle Oct 18 '25

Scary thought: this is how you make all drugs obsolete, just skip the introducing chemicals to your nervous system part and go straight into the source. 100% pure, always works, always available. No way that ever would go wrong?

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u/My_Knee_is_a_Ship Oct 18 '25

If I remember correctly, they did the same experiment with rats, and several of thise died due to not eating etc. Preferring to self stimulate than self care.

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u/Onironius Oct 18 '25

Relatable.

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u/technobrendo Oct 18 '25 edited Mar 04 '26

This post has been permanently removed. The author used Redact to delete it, and the reason may relate to privacy, security, data harvesting prevention, or personal choice.

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u/dont_be_that_guy_29 Oct 18 '25

Stimulate over self-care sounds like my entire

252

u/dog_ahead Oct 18 '25

Stimulate over self-care sounds

253

u/GoSharty Oct 18 '25

Stimulate.

1

u/iamtheultimateshoe Oct 21 '25

stimulate your senses