More Than Nature Made
You want it low: novelty re-lights the reward circuit, and in compulsive use the circuit comes to want more while enjoying no more.
In depth
Supernormal stimulus — a cue more intense or more novel than anything the reward circuit evolved to meet; internet pornography, with its endless novelty, is the modern example.
What it drives
It increases Reward circuit.
PPU subjects when compared with control subjects showed increased activation of ventral striatum specifically for cues predicting erotic pictures but not for cues predicting monetary gains. doi 10.1038/npp.2017.78
It increases Motivation.
The present data suggest that the stimulus properties of a novel receptive female may serve to increase NAC DA transmission in a sexually satiated male rat, and this, in turn, may be related to the reinitiation of sexual behavior. doi 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.17-12-04849.1997
See it on the map
Open the causal map to follow this pathway upstream and downstream, arrow by arrow, each with its study.