NEW HAVEN, Conn., Oct. 5 (UPI) -- When a person plays a game -- even a simple one such as rock-paper-scissors, the brain takes notice, in fact, the whole brain is involved, U.S. researchers say.
Lead author Timothy Vickery, a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University, said textbooks teach that sensations of reward and punishment are centered in a region at the center of the brain called the basal ganglia, which contains a network of cells distributing dopamine, a neurotransmitter that reaches into the prefrontal cortex and other areas of the brain.