A recent study in Barcelona’s Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute and Otto von Guericke University has found that learning new meaningful words activates a core reward center in the brain, the ventral striatum. This area stimulates pleasure in the brain and is also activated when eating chocolate and gambling. The researchers conducted trials on 36 adults who participated in gambling simulations and language-based test. The scientists looked at MRI scans of the participants’ brains and discovered that both language-based and gambling-like tests activated the same parts of the brain. The results also demonstrated that those with higher myelin concentrations, which is connected to the reward area, were able to learn more words. The findings of the study could help promote possible treatments for people with disorders connected with language learning.

Original Article: http://rt.com/news/199416-brain-sex-chocolate-language/