A Short Note On 'Wireheading'

There is some ambiguity in the literature regarding the term “wireheading”. The term is sometimes used in science fiction for direct electrical stimulation of the pleasure centres. The molecular signature of pure bliss seems to lie within our twin hedonic hotspots in the ventral pallidum and medial rostral shell of the nucleus accumbens. They are activated by full mu opioid receptor agonists. However, the mesolimbic dopamine system activated in intracranial self-stimulation studies might more accurately called the desire centres. Dopaminergic “wanting” and mu opioidergic “liking” are intimately connected in the CNS. But in principle they are doubly dissociable, i.e. it’s possible to increase (or decrease) one without increasing or decreasing the other.
See Pleasures of the Brain (2009) by Morten L. Kringelbach and Kent C. Berridge (eds)

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