Reinforcement, the neural processing of, and behavioral response to, reward and punishment drives behavior including learning, skill acquisition, and socialization. It shapes behaviors from the most primitive (fight–flight, ingest–regurgitate, approach–avoid) to the most complex (buy–sell). An understanding of abnormal processing and responding to reinforcing stimuli is critical in a range of issues and topics across the fields of psychology and psychiatry including psychiatric and neurological illness, addictive behaviors, and eating disorders.
