Beyond Substance Addiction: Broadening the Concept of Addiction to Include Behavioral Addiction

At the early 1950's, Olds and Milner's discovery of 'reinforcing structures in the midbrain' as a pleasure center spurred the rapid advancement of neuroscience research on addiction. The field will once again expand due to the recent redefinition of addiction. From the previous definition encompassing only substance addiction, such as addiction to alcohol and illegal or legal drugs, the concept of addiction has been broadened to include behavioral addiction including pathological gambling, shopping addiction, sex addictions, and the relatively new phenomenon of internet addiction. From the perspective of neuroscience, we briefly discuss similarities between substance addiction, on the one hand, and internet addiction as an example of behavioral addiction, on the other.