Home▸Neuroscience & Biophysics▸FOMO Brain Reward Circuit Simulator

🧠 The Neuroscience of FOMO

Interactive 3D brain model highlighting dopaminergic reward circuits and social-pain regions where triggering simulated notification events shows activity spiking in each circuit.

Neuroscience & Biophysics3DModerate60 FPS

A stylised 3D brain highlights the dopaminergic reward circuit (VTA → nucleus accumbens → prefrontal cortex) and the social-pain circuit (dACC → insula → amygdala); simulated notification events send visible pulses along each pathway.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

Unpredictable "rewards" produce larger dopamine prediction-error spikes than predictable ones, while a portion of notifications resolve as social rejection, activating the same circuitry the brain uses for physical pain.

🎮 How to Use

Adjust notification rate, reward unpredictability, and social rejection risk, or trigger a notification manually. Watch the dopamine and social-pain meters spike and decay as pulses travel each pathway.

💡 Did You Know?

Variable-ratio reinforcement — the same schedule used in slot machines — produces stronger, more persistent checking behaviour than a fixed, predictable reward of the same average size.

⚙ Under the hood

Interactive 3D brain where triggering social-media notifications shows how dopamine reward-prediction signals and social-pain circuits combine to produce the FOMO response.

fomodopaminereward-predictionsocial-painbehavioural-psychologyneuroscience

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install