The brain's material reward system is the same one it uses for evidence

This confirms something we already know : people seek out information that they like and shun what they don't. The new feature seems to be discussing that the brain uses the same reward system for information as it does for materials. What it doesn't address is the conditions under which people seek out information for its own sake. Clearly there are situations in which people are willing to acknowledge things they don't like, so what's going on there ? Does their reward system value truth above everything else, and if so why ? How does the brain work differently in those situations and how can we encourage this ?

Funded by the Wellcome Trust, the research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also finds that people will spend money to both obtain advance knowledge of a good upcoming event and to remain ignorant of an upcoming bad event.

"Our research shows that the brain's reward circuitry selectively treats the opportunity to gain knowledge about future favorable outcomes, but not unfavorable outcomes, as a reward in and of itself, explaining why knowledge may not always be preferred."

The researchers found that activity in the brain's reward system—the nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental area—in response to the opportunity to receive information about good lotteries, but not about bad lotteries, displayed a pattern similar to what is observed in response to material rewards. This brain signal was independent from the brain response observed when participants found out whether they won or lost the lottery and predicted their preference for information.


https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-06-brain-knowledge.html