Recreational drugs aren’t the only ones that stimulate dopamine. There are prescription drugs that do it as well, and when they hit the desire circuit too hard, strange things can happen. Parkinson’s disease is an illness of dopamine deficiency in a pathway that’s responsible for controlling muscle movements. Or, to put it more simply, it’s how we translate our inner world of ideas into action, the way we impose our will upon the world. When there is not enough dopamine in this circuit, people become stiff and shaky, and they move slowly. The treatment is to prescribe drugs that boost
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