NPR

Human Brains Have Evolved Unique 'Feel-Good' Circuits

A comparison of brain tissue from monkeys, chimps and humans suggests that our brains produce the chemical messenger dopamine, which plays a major role in pleasure and rewards, far differently.
A chimpanzee skull, at left, and a human skull. Scientists are probing why our brains evolved so differently despite many similarities.

A brain system involved in everything from addiction to autism appears to have evolved differently in people than in great apes, a team reports Thursday in the journal Science.

The system controls the production of dopamine, a chemical messenger that plays a major role in pleasure and rewards.

"Humans have, an author of the study and a professor of neuroscience at Yale.

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