The last decade or so have witnessed significant advances in knowledge of the neurobiology of addiction and its impact on treatment (reviewed in (2, (1). But despite these breakthroughs, there’s still a considerable lag in translating these discoveries into daily practice, especially with the few clinicians using neuroscience-informed interventions in routine treatment (3). In particular, the gap in neuroscience and substance abuse treatment effectiveness is striking when you look at studies published in the last ten years regarding brain imaging and addiction treatment outcomes. A growing body of evidence has revealed that substance abuse and dependence are characterized by specific regions of the brain that become activated during drug use, as well as specific brain circuits that show strong functional connectivity to those regions when addicts engage in behavior that matches those areas of the brain activated by drug use. One of these recent developments is called neurofeedback (or neurofeedback training). Neurofeedback trains people to modulate their brain activity in response to stimulus, helping them to identify how their brain responds in real time, helping them to focus their attention on the regions of their brains that signal pleasure or reward when they are engaged in certain behaviors (e.g. when they do things that make them feel good). In this way, neurofeedback trains people to alter their brain’s normal function in order to alleviate addiction without having to resort to potentially addictive substances, which are often thought to cause addiction through changes in the central nervous system. Of course, not everyone who is interested in pursuing a career in drug rehabilitation has access to a lab. So, what is the neuroscience of addiction? There’s still work to be done before we can say for sure what the neurobiology of addiction is. We still don’t know how it works, how much it plays a role in drug abuse and how to treat addiction without having to resort to substances. But it’s also important to remember that our brains are complex machines; they are subject to biological influences from outside the brain. It’s possible to alter those influences and create new pathways that help people recover from addiction, or even cure it completely!