Addiction is a complex psychiatry condition manifested as a loss of
control over drug usage, or non-drug behavior, despite harmful
consequences. Although it has been studied for decades, both in the
clinical and the neuroscientific literature, a comprehensive
understanding of the mechanisms underlying this loss of control is
still pending. Here, I argue that investigating addictive behaviors
under the lens of the exploration-exploitation dilemma offers a unique
possibility to investigate maladaptive processes underlying this loss
of control. The exploration-exploitation dilemma is a decision conflict
faced by humans and animals on a daily basis and it captures an
ensemble of mechanisms related to the health and fitness of an
individual. Therefore, the dilemma offers a framework within which
the maladaptive processes observed in addiction can be
investigated. However, this dilemma has only been investigated very
implicitly in the literature where the influence of learning processes
typically altered in addiction on the dilemma is still unknown. And,
insight into the influence of these learning processes on the dilemma
is necessary for more efficient clinical interventions. By investigating
the role of these learning processes on the resolution of the dilemma,
this project aims to develop a behavioral, computational and neural
account for addictive behaviors to better target treatments.