Two Brain Circuits, Not One, Decide Whether — and How Strongly — a Habit Sticks

Two Brain Circuits, Not One, Decide Whether — and How Strongly — a Habit Sticks

Habit formation is one of those everyday phenomena that feels intuitive right up until someone tries to define it precisely. The basic story is familiar: repeat a behavior often enough, and it stops requiring conscious thought, sliding from deliberate decision-making into something closer to automatic pilot. That much has been established for a while. What has remained far murkier is whether a habit, once formed, is simply a faithful copy of the…