Dr Hermina Nedelescu - 'Addiction as a Normal Hedonic and Motivating Function of the Neural System'

This presentation was delivered during the IOCS Summer Institute on ‘Finding God in the Everyday: Faith, Profession, Vocation‘, Cambridge, 11-12 September 2023.
Dr Nedelescu asked that the following summary should accompany the presentation to assist the viewers:
"Similar to the stars in the sky, the mammalian brain, including the human brain, is comprised of constellations of brain cells called neurons. These neurons make connections with multiple other regions in the brain through long projections called pathways. In this presentation, I show several lines of evidence for the activation of pleasure (“feels good”) pathways as well as the activation of aversive (“feels bad”) pathways in the brain. The “feels good” pathway includes both positive and negative reinforcement experiences. These are experiences that result in the escalation of a behavioural response further engaging the activation of the brain’s “feels good” pathways. Human beings can induce an activation of their “feels good” pathways by engaging in experiences with drugs, alcohol, problematic internet use or even the objectification of another human being. By contrast, people can also activate their “feels good” pathways by directing their experience toward Christ and imitating a Christ-like behaviour rooted in love towards all. In both of these cases, the “feels good” pathways are activated with escalating thirst for the pleasant subjective feeling. The distinction is that the former leads to self-destruction while the latter leads to eternity. The aversive pathways includes primarily negative experiences, which serve to protect us from harm by avoiding certain environments. All experiences, including spiritual experiences, work through our physical brain system discussed in this presentation. The Fathers and Mothers of the Church were well aware of the physical brain system, with Gregory of Nyssa on the forefront of understanding what we identify today as the “feels good” vs. “feels bad” diametrically opposing brain pathways. Finally, Gregory of Nyssa understood that there existed “feels good” pathways with and without duplicity.
(All experimental procedures were conducted in accordance with the National Institutes of Health (USA) Guidelines for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and approved by Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.)"
Video and summary © H. Nedelescu, IOCS 2023