Incentive Sensitisation — A Modern Theory of Addiction
How addiction can be driven by exaggerated “wanting” even when “liking” is gone.
Incentive sensitisation theory, proposed by Kent Berridge and Terry Robinson, says that addictive drugs (and some behaviours) don’t just produce pleasure — they sensitise the brain’s incentive (“wanting”) systems. Repeated high‑intensity dopamine release in the mesolimbic reward circuit makes it over‑respond to drug‑associated cues: sights, smells, people, places, paraphernalia.
Over time, the hedonic impact (“liking”) of the drug can decline due to tolerance, but the cue‑evoked wanting can keep strengthening. The result is the classic addicted state: intense, sometimes overwhelming craving in response to triggers, even when the person knows the experience will be flat or miserable.
This model explains otherwise puzzling phenomena: relapse after long periods of abstinence, drug consumption that no longer looks enjoyable from the outside, and the way simple cues (a street, a song) can provoke bodily urgency. It also helps differentiate addiction from heavy but flexible use, where wanting and liking remain more proportionate and less cue‑locked.
Why It Matters
By separating wanting from liking, incentive sensitisation frees addicted people from the accusation that they must still “love” the substance — their behaviour is more about an over‑trained motivational system than about current pleasure.
Closing Line
Incentive sensitisation is the story of a brain that keeps shouting “go” long after the party stopped being fun.