Isn't it also the pleasure center? An amygdala that gets over excited with pleasure can interfere with the ability to make rational decisions. There is a theory that addictions are not a matter of choice but a disease that impairs ones ability to make choices. The theory is that the brain of a substance abuser is diseased in that the amygdala gets excited by substances way more than normal, it looks like a fireworks display on a brain scan, and those signals overwhel the signals coming from the prefrontal lobe, or is it the cortex, I forget.

By the way I do not like the debate about whether addiction is a disease or a failure of willpower. I do not think it matters. It is simply a problem that requires new treatments and no finger pointing. 12 step programs and the rehabs based thereon have terrible statistics. https://medium.com/illumination/drilling-down-to-the-root-cause-of-addiction-7c57c5a3fd6c