Life's rewards
Linking dopamine, incentive learning, schizophrenia, and the mind

Since its discovery in the 1960s, a vast and wide-ranging body of research has accumulated about the dopaminergic system. Life's Rewards: Linking Dopamine, Incentive Learning, Schizophrenia, and the Mind offers a broad synthesis of our current understanding of this chemical, addressing, amongst others, its intricate relationship with learning and memory, psychopathology, social co-operation, and drug abuse. Aimed at students and researchers in neuroscience and psychology, Life's Rewards: Linking Dopamine, Incentive Learning, Schizophrenia, and the Mind is essential reading for anyone interested in the relationship between dopamine and reward-related incentive learning.

Richard J Beninger was born in Walkerton ON in 1950. He studied psychology at Western University, London ON and McGill University, Montreal QC. After completing his PhD in 1977, he continued his studies at the University of British Columbia until moving in 1980 to Queen's University, Kingston ON where he retired as Joint Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry in 2015. During his career, Rick's research focused on neurotransmitters and behaviour in general and dopamine and behaviour in particular. Along with his many students, Rick published regularly in peer-reviewed journals, building over the years an integrated understanding of the behavioural function of dopamine and the associated brain mechanisms of reward-related incentive learning.