• dopamine system
• hybrid automata
• modelling
• simulation

This thesis aims to improve theories of how the dopaminergic system works in an addiction context, by making use of modelling and simulation from computer science and different sociological and psychological theories about the addiction problem.
The main focus is characterised by the dopamine system, which plays a key role in the brain: it is involved in several fundamental mechanisms (such as for example motivation, decision-making and motor control) and is also associated with particular disorders, as for example schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease, and principally, with the addiction. The dopamine, in fact, is a neurotransmitter that, as demonstrated also in many different laboratory experiments, is involved in the mechanism of reward system and connected with “the part of brain that establishes communication between past experience and future decision-making”. The first part provides an overview of the main sociological theories on the problem of addiction, focusing on the causes and consequences of this phenomenon has on human behaviour, in particular, the inquiry will move to a new kind of addiction: the Internet and technology.