Brain's 'Eureka!' Circuit Found

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The area of the brain that controls whether you keep rooting around the refrigerator or actually start chowing down has now been discovered.

This brain region — which seems to help govern the "eureka" moment or turning point between exploration and mulling over one's discovery — is also linked to urges that malfunction in addiction and certain mental disorders, scientists added.

The experiments mimicked nature, where an animal might search "which hole is hiding food, and then go back to that hole if it proved to be a good source," said researcher Emmanuel Procyk, a neuroscientist at the University of Lyon in France.

During the experiments, Procyk and his colleagues recorded the electrical activity of hundreds of neurons in the anterior cingulate cortex. This brain region helps assess the rewards and costs of an action.

The anterior cingulate was more active when the monkeys were searching for the rewarding target, the researchers found. They also discovered certain neurons in this region specialized in firing just after the reward was discovered. These "eureka circuits" let the animals know when to stop exploring and start exploiting their discoveries.

Procyk noted this circuit's role in decision-making could malfunction in drug addiction or with the disorganized brain activity "in several mental disorders like schizophrenia."

Procyk and his colleagues detailed their findings in the Jan. 24 issue of the journal Neuron.

Charles Q. Choi
Charles Q. Choi
Live Science Contributor
Charles Q. Choi is a contributing writer for Live Science and Space.com. He covers all things human origins and astronomy as well as physics, animals and general science topics. Charles has a Master of Arts degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, School of Journalism and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Florida. Charles has visited every continent on Earth, drinking rancid yak butter tea in Lhasa, snorkeling with sea lions in the Galapagos and even climbing an iceberg in Antarctica.