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August 28, 2022 - November 1, 2025
Not surprisingly, the dopamine control circuit involves the frontal lobes, the part of the brain that is sometimes called the neocortex because it evolved most recently. It’s what makes human beings unique. It gives us the imagination to project ourselves further into the future than the desire circuit can take us, so we can make long-term plans.
Desire dopamine makes us want things. It is the source of raw desire: give me more. But we’re not at the ungoverned mercy of our desire. We also have a complementary dopamine circuit that calculates what sort of more is worth having. It gives us the ability to construct plans—to strategize and dominate the world around us to get the things we want.
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, which we will call the dopamine control circuit
In addition, the dopamine control circuit is the source of imagination. It lets us peer into the future to see the consequences of decisions we might make right now, and thus allows us to choose which future we prefer. Finally, it gives us the ability to plan how to make that imaginary future a reality.
The two circuits begin in the same place, but the desire circuit ends in a part of the brain that triggers excitement and enthusiasm, while the control circuit goes to the frontal lobes, a part of the brain that specializes in logical thinking.
Control dopamine takes the excitement and motivation provided by desire dopamine, evaluates options, selects tools, and plots a strategy to get what it wants.
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.
Under normal circumstances, robust self-efficacy is a valuable asset. Sometimes it can act like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Having a confident expectation of success can make obstacles melt before your eyes.
A relationship that is formed for the purpose of accomplishing a goal is called agentic, and it is orchestrated by dopamine. The other person acts as an extension of you, an agent who assists you in achieving your goal.
Affiliative relationships, on the other hand, are for the purpose of enjoying social interactions. The simple pleasure of being with another person, experienced in the here and now,
Although we think of domination as an active, even aggressive, activity, it doesn’t have to be. Dopamine doesn’t care how something is obtained. It just wants to get what it wants. So an agentic relationship can be entirely passive;
No matter how ignorant, degraded, or foolish a man is, there is something he knows, something he has mastered, that Emerson valued.
In the control circuit, dopamine drives domination of the environment, not necessarily the people in it. Dopamine wants more, and it doesn’t care how it gets it. Moral or immoral, dominant or submissive, it’s all the same to dopamine, as long as it leads to a better future.
Planning, tenacity, and force of will through personal effort or by working with others: these are the ways control-circuit dopamine lets us dominate our environment.
These individuals exhibit the effects of an imbalance between future-focused dopamine and present-focused H&N neurotransmitters. They flee the emotional and sensory experiences of the present. For them, life is about the future, about improvement, about innovation. Despite the money and even fame that comes from their efforts, they are usually unhappy. No matter how much they do, it’s never enough.
When control dopamine is weak, people go after things they want with little thought about the long-term consequences. Kids with ADHD grab toys and cut in line. Adults with ADHD make impulse purchases and interrupt people.
People who live with ADHD are at high risk of addiction, especially adolescents, because of their poorly functioning frontal lobes.
Young people with ADHD have difficulty making friends. Who wants to be around someone who interrupts, grabs things, and doesn’t wait their turn? They often have to read homework assignments over and over again before they understand the material. This happens as a result of constant distractions.
association does not imply causation. Just because two things are found together doesn’t necessarily mean that one caused the other.
overweight children are more likely to be hit by cars when they’re crossing the street. It’s not because they walk more slowly; it’s because they’re impulsive.
People whose control-dopamine systems are at one extreme or the other can change. People with ADHD can improve dramatically with medication, psychotherapy, and sometimes just time.
Dopamine doesn’t come equipped with a conscience. Rather, it is a source of cunning fed by desire. When it’s revved up, it suppresses feelings of guilt, which is an H&N emotion.
In fact, it’s winning competitions that gives us access to food and reproductive partners. As a result, it’s not surprising that winning competitions releases dopamine.
the dopamine surge triggered by winning leaves us wanting more.
Nothing is ever enough for dopamine. It is the pursuit that matters, and the victory, but there is no finish line,
Winners cheat for the same reason that drug addicts take drugs. The rush feels great, and withdrawal feels terrible. Both know that their behavior has the potential to destroy their lives, but the desire circuit doesn’t care. It only wants more. More drugs, more success. But true success doesn’t come from cheating. If you make a mistake, people will forgive you, but if you act dishonestly, it will stick with you for a long time. That’s why the control circuit is so important. It’s rational. It’s able to make cool, reasoned decisions, ones that will maximize your welfare not just today, but far
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The ability to suppress emotions such as fear, anger, or overwhelming desire provides an advantage in the midst of conflict. Emotion is almost always a liability that interferes with calculated action. In fact, a common strategy of domination is to stimulate emotional reactions in one’s adversary to interfere with his ability to execute his plans.
Some people have more active dopaminergic circuits than others. Researchers have identified a number of genes that contribute to the development of this type of personality.
These people all have one thing in common, though. They are obsessed with making the future more rewarding at the expense of being able to experience the joys of the present.
Emotion is an H&N experience. It’s what we feel right here, right now. Emotion is critical to our ability to understand the world, but emotions can sometimes overwhelm us. When that happens, we make less-logical decisions. Fortunately, dopamine’s opposition to H&N circuits can turn down the volume on emotion.
the fact that he could sense that panic was on the way, but was able to hold it off, is an indication that his dopamine system had not shut down completely. After only a few seconds, control dopamine was fully activated, and he began to make rational plans.
During the intense moments when he saved the boat, dopamine was in control and adrenaline (called norepinephrine when it is inside the brain) was suppressed.
Researchers measured the density of dopamine receptors (how many there are, and how closely they crowd together) in the brains of a variety of people, and compared the results to tests that measured the person’s “emotional detachment.”
Dopamine control circuits and H&N circuits work in opposition, creating a balance that allows us to be humane toward others, while safeguarding our own survival.
The neurotransmitter dopamine is the source of desire (via the desire circuit) and tenacity (via the control circuit); the passion that points the way and the willpower that gets us there. Usually the two work together, but when desire fixates on things that will bring us harm in the long run—a third piece of cake, an extramarital affair, or an IV injection of heroin—dopaminergic willpower turns around, and does battle with its companion circuit.
Willpower is like a muscle. It becomes fatigued with use, and after a fairly short period of time, it gives out.
The goal of addiction psychotherapy is to pit one part of the brain against another.
a variety of different psychotherapies. Among the best studied are motivational enhancement therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and twelve-step facilitation therapy. Each takes a unique approach to using the resources found in the human brain to counteract the destructive impulses of the malfunctioning desire-dopamine circuit.
They’re ambivalent: part of them wants nothing more than to use drugs, but there are other, weaker desires as well. Those desires can be strengthened. There may be a desire to be a better spouse, a better parent, or to do better at work.
None of these desires is able to provoke dopamine release the way drugs do, but desire not only gives us motivation to act; it also gives us patience to endure. In motivational enhancement therapy (MET), patients tolerate feeling resentful and deprived, the punishment of disappointed dopamine, because they know it will lead to something better. The goal of the therapy is to stoke the flames of desire for a better life.
There’s an old saying: “We don’t believe what we hear, we believe what we say.”
It’s better to be smart than strong. Instead of trying to attack an addiction head on through willpower, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) uses the planning ability of control dopamine to defeat the raw power of desire dopamine.
Alcoholics in CBT learn to arm themselves against cue-triggered craving in a number of different ways.
They also work to eliminate as many cues as possible. The patient and a friend are sent on a “search-and-destroy mission” in which everything that reminds the patient of alcohol is removed from his home: cocktail glasses, shakers, hip flasks, martini olives, and so forth. Anything that the drinker connects to alcohol use is a trigger, and has to go because otherwise it might be the agent of craving that brings an end to a hard-fought period of sobriety.
Scientists recently discovered that being addicted to alcohol changes the way certain segments of DNA work, segments that are essential for the normal functioning of the dopamine control circuits in the frontal lobes. A key enzyme is suppressed, interfering with the neurons’ ability to transmit signals. It’s like a hacker taking out the enemy’s communication channels right in the middle of a battle.
Alcoholics can still overcome their addiction, but impairing control dopamine’s ability to oppose desire dopamine’s impulses makes things difficult.
The good news is we now know this weapon exists, and if we can find a way to reverse the DNA changes, we can neutralize it.
AA is a fellowship rather than a treatment. A person gets better through relationships with other members of the group and their relationship with a higher power. The social part of our brain makes connections with other people using H&N neurotransmitters. There are few things in this world as powerful as relationships.
The H&N experience of guilt is a powerful motivator (as your mother knows). The combination of emotional support and the threat of guilt helps many addicts maintain a long-lasting sobriety.
