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October 3 - October 11, 2020
In your brain the down world is managed by a handful of chemicals—neurotransmitters, they’re called—that let you experience satisfaction and enjoy whatever you have in the here and now.
But when you turn your attention to the world of up, your brain relies on a different chemical—a single molecule—that not only allows you to move beyond the realm of what’s at your fingertips, but also motivates you to pursue, to control, and to possess the world beyond your immediate grasp.
Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, plus a single nitrogen atom—it is simple in form and complex in result. This is dopamine, and it narrates no less than the story of human behavior.
Initially, dopamine was seen simply as a way for the body to produce a chemical called norepinephrine, which is what adrenaline is called when it is found in the brain.
Some scientists christened dopamine the pleasure molecule, and the pathway that dopamine-producing cells take through the brain was named the reward circuit.
MONKEYS AND RATS AND WHY LOVE FADES
From that, a new hypothesis arose: dopamine activity is not a marker of pleasure. It is a reaction to the unexpected—to possibility and anticipation.
Dopaminergic excitement (that is, the thrill of anticipation) doesn’t last forever, because eventually the future becomes the present.
Dopamine’s job—and ability—to idealize the unknown came to an end, so dopamine shut down.
Passion rises when we dream of a world of possibility, and fades when we are confronted by reality.
peripersonal and the extrapersonal—
Peripersonal space includes whatever is in arm’s reach; things you can control right now by using your hands. This is the world of what’s real, right now.
Dopamine has a very specific job: maximizing resources that will be available to us in the future; the pursuit of better things.
Love must shift from an extrapersonal experience to a peripersonal one—from pursuit to possession; from something we anticipate to something we have to take care of. These are vastly different skills, which is why over time the nature of love has to change—and why, for so many people, love fades away at the end of the dopamine thrill we call romance.
Whether it’s an airplane in the sky, a movie star in Hollywood, or a distant mountain, only things that are out of reach can be glamorous; only things that are unreal. Glamour is a lie.
The novelty that triggers dopamine doesn’t go on forever.
Love that lasts shifts the emphasis from anticipation to experience; from the fantasy of anything being possible to engagement with reality and all its imperfections.
From dopamine’s point of view, having things is uninteresting. It’s only getting things that matters. If you live under a bridge, dopamine makes you want a tent. If you live in a tent, dopamine makes you want a house. If you live in the most expensive mansion in the world, dopamine makes you want a castle on the moon. Dopamine has no standard for good, and seeks no finish line. The dopamine circuits in the brain can be stimulated only by the possibility of whatever is shiny and new, never mind how perfect things are at the moment. The dopamine motto is “More.”
Dopamine isn’t the pleasure molecule, after all. It’s the anticipation molecule. To enjoy the things we have, as opposed to the things that are only possible, our brains must transition from future-oriented dopamine to present-oriented chemicals, a collection of neurotransmitters we call the Here and Now molecules, or the H&Ns. Most people have heard of the H&Ns. They include serotonin, oxytocin, endorphins (your brain’s version of morphine), and a class of chemicals called endocannabinoids (your brain’s version of marijuana).
Lovers experience the same disconnect between anticipation and experience. The early part, passionate love, is dopaminergic—exhilarating, idealized, curious, future looking. The later part, companionate love, is H&N focused—satisfying, peaceful, and experienced through bodily senses and emotions.
Just as dopamine is the molecule of obsessive yearning, the chemicals most associated with long-term relationships are oxytocin and vasopressin. Oxytocin is more active in women and vasopressin in men.
With few exceptions the brain’s response to orgasm was the same: dopamine off, H&N on.
Passion deferred is passion sustained.
Dopamine responded not to reward, but to reward prediction error: the actual reward minus the expected reward. That’s why falling in love doesn’t last forever.
It revs our desires, illuminates our imagination, and draws us into a relationship on an incandescent promise. But when it comes to love, dopamine is a place to begin, not to finish. It can never be satisfied. Dopamine can only say, “More.”
It’s much easier just to do what we want, so that’s what we do.
When these long-tailed cells are activated, they release dopamine into the nucleus accumbens, driving the feeling we know as motivation. The scientific term for this circuit is the mesolimbic pathway, although it’s easier to simply call it the dopamine desire
The transition from excitement to enjoyment can be challenging.
Take shelter. Find food. Protect your children.
there’s no satiety circuit for crack.
By shaping the brain to make surprising events predictable, dopamine maximizes resources, as it is supposed to do, but in the process, by eliminating surprise and extinguishing reward-prediction error, it suppresses its own activity.
“life’s intense pleasures are less frequent and less sustained than intense desire.”
Impulsive behavior occurs when too much value is placed on immediate pleasure and not enough on long-term consequences.
Addiction is not a sign of weak character or a lack of willpower. It occurs when the desire circuits get thrown into a pathological state by overstimulation.
The dopamine desire circuit is powerful. It focuses attention, motivates, and thrills. It has a profound influence over the choices we make. Yet it isn’t all-powerful. Addicts get clean. Dieters lose weight. Sometimes we switch off the TV, get off the couch, and go for a run. What kind of circuit in the brain is powerful enough to oppose dopamine? Dopamine is. Dopamine opposing dopamine. The circuit that opposes the desire circuit might be called the dopamine control circuit.
Impulse without reason is not enough, and reason without impulse is a poor makeshift. —William James One cool judgment is worth a dozen hasty councils. —Woodrow Wilson
In which dopamine drives us to overcome complexity, adversity, emotion, and pain so we can control our environment.
Urges come from dopamine passing through the mesolimbic circuit, which we call the dopamine desire circuit.
Calculation and planning—the means of dominating situations—come from the mesocortical circuit,
Dopamine encourages us to maximize our resources by rewarding us when we do so—the act of doing something well, of making our future a better, safer place, gives us a little dopamine “buzz.”
The ability to put forth effort is dopaminergic. The quality of that effort can be influenced by any number of other factors, but without dopamine, there is no effort at all.
This influences tenacity.
They know you are more likely to stick with it if you see that you are capable of doing it. Scientists call this self-efficacy.
Under normal circumstances, robust self-efficacy is a valuable asset. Sometimes it can act like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
They noted that when people expand themselves, taking up a large amount of space, they’re perceived as dominant. Conversely, when they constrict themselves, taking up as little space as possible, they’re perceived as submissive.
A relationship that is formed for the purpose of accomplishing a goal is called agentic, and it is orchestrated by dopamine.
Affiliative relationships, on the other hand, are for the purpose of enjoying social interactions.
Orbit Non Sufficit: The World Is Not Enough.
Emotion is almost always a liability that interferes with calculated action.
He prayed, Lord, give me chastity, but not yet.
