{"id":6085,"date":"2009-10-30T16:10:53","date_gmt":"2009-10-30T15:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/dodgy-dopamine\/"},"modified":"2023-09-23T11:09:11","modified_gmt":"2023-09-23T09:09:11","slug":"dodgy-dopamine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/dodgy-dopamine\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgy Dopamine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dopamine is thought of as the pleasure and reward neurotransmitter. New research is revealing that it is not quite a simple as pleasure drug: <\/p>\n

In the emerging view, discussed in part at the Society for Neuroscience meeting last week in Chicago, dopamine is less about pleasure and reward than about drive and motivation, about figuring out what you have to do to survive and then doing it. \u201cWhen you can\u2019t breathe, and you\u2019re gasping for air, would you call that pleasurable?\u201d said Nora D. Volkow, a dopamine researcher and director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. \u201cOr when you\u2019re so hungry that you eat something disgusting, is that pleasurable?\u201d<\/p>\n

In both responses, Dr. Volkow said, the gasping for oxygen and the wolfing down of something you would ordinarily spurn, the dopamine pathways of the brain are at full throttle. \u201cThe whole brain is of one mindset,\u201d she said. \u201cThe intense drive to get you out of a state of deprivation and keep you alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dopamine is also part of the brain\u2019s salience filter, its get-a-load-of-this device. \u201cYou can\u2019t pay attention to everything, but you want to be adept as an organism at recognizing things that are novel,\u201d Dr. Volkow said. \u201cYou might not notice a fly in the room, but if that fly was fluorescent, your dopamine cells would fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, our dopamine-driven salience detector will focus on familiar objects that we have imbued with high value, both positive and negative: objects we want and objects we fear. If we love chocolate, our dopamine neurons will most likely start to fire at the sight of a pert little chocolate bean lying on the counter. But if we fear cockroaches, those same neurons may fire even harder when we notice that the \u201cbean\u201d has six legs. The pleasurable taste of chocolate per se, however, or the anxiety of cockroach phobia, may well be the handiwork of other signaling molecules, like opiates or stress hormones. Dopamine simply makes a relevant object almost impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n

Should the brain want to ignore what it might otherwise notice, dopamine must be muzzled.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From: A Molecule of Motivation, Dopamine Excels at Its Task – NYTimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dopamine is thought of as the pleasure and reward neurotransmitter. New research is revealing that it is not quite a simple as pleasure drug:  In the emerging view, discussed in part at the Society for Neuroscience meeting last week in Chicago, dopamine is less about pleasure and reward than about drive and motivation, about figuring … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[296],"class_list":["post-6085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-published"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/prY0k-1A9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8408,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/habituate-yourself\/","url_meta":{"origin":6085,"position":0},"title":"Habituate yourself","author":"Limbic","date":"March 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I am really looking forward to reading \"The Power of Habit\" by Charles Duhigg. Its on my kindle, slowly making its way up the list. Here is an extract from an interview with Neurotribes: In his provocative and brilliantly written new book, The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg \u2014 a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthropology","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/science\/anthropology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/habit_cover_.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8141,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/pathological-altruism\/","url_meta":{"origin":6085,"position":1},"title":"Pathological Altruism","author":"Limbic","date":"October 18, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"We all know the type. I will help you until it hurts. I will help you so hard I will kill you. Now the pathology has a name: Pathological Altruism From Selflessness Gone Awry, and the Damage It Can Cause - NYTimes.com: As the new book makes clear, pathological altruism\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Miscellaneous"","block_context":{"text":"Miscellaneous","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/miscellaneous\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16048,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/digital-militias\/","url_meta":{"origin":6085,"position":2},"title":"Digital Militias","author":"Limbic","date":"October 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The term digital militias is usually used to refer to online social media fighters, often paid, who agitate on behalf of their chosen cause. Every conflict has cadres representing both sides who slug it out in forums, on twitter and Facebook . I have another idea about digital militias. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Computing & Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Computing & Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/science\/computing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8369,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/work-according-to-program-and-not-according-to-mood\/","url_meta":{"origin":6085,"position":3},"title":"“Work according to Program and not according to mood.”","author":"LimbicNutrition Shorts","date":"February 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201c\"Work according to Program and not according to mood. \"\u201d - Henry Miller\u2019s 11 Commandments of Writing & Daily Creative Routine | Brain Pickings","rel":"","context":"In "Miscellaneous"","block_context":{"text":"Miscellaneous","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/miscellaneous\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2595,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/the-inner-ring-by-cs-lewis\/","url_meta":{"origin":6085,"position":4},"title":"The Inner Ring by CS Lewis","author":"Limbic","date":"December 3, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"\"The Inner Ring\" was the Memorial Lecture at King's College, University of London, in 1944. It is a superb piece of work and an apt demonstration of why C.S. Lewis is one of my favourite writers even though he is mostly concerened with religious matters but I am a non\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20964,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/power-really-does-corrupt\/","url_meta":{"origin":6085,"position":5},"title":"Power really does corrupt","author":"Limbic","date":"September 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I learned last week that becoming powerful has measurable neurological effects on your ability to empathize. Listen to this fascinating episode of NPR\u2019s Hidden Brain on \u201cThe Perils of Power\u201d. If you have a Harvard Business Review subscription there is a long article in the October 2016 edition called \u201cDon\u2019t\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthropology","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/science\/anthropology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6085\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}