Oct 3, 2011
Happiness and the pursuit of dopamine
We all know it when we receive it. It’s that most pleasurable feeling, that emotion that drives us. Reward! Well, drives us to what exactly? One might say that biochemically speaking we seek out those things that fure up the dopaminergic neurons and the release of this rewarding chemical and that it is dopamine that motivates us in so many areas of our lives. What else is there to living than mood, motivation, movement, sleep, sex … reward.
Read on in my October Research Highlights column in the ChemistryViews magazine: Could Dopamine be the Most Evil Chemical in the World?
Related articles
- Alterations in Brain Dopamine Pathway Appears to be Associated with Certain Symptoms of ADHD (macrooney.wordpress.com)
- The Biology of Stimulants, or Why You Can’t Stay High Forever (addiction-dirkh.blogspot.com)
- Schizophrenia – The Dopamine Hypothesis (aqapsyblog.wordpress.com)
- Dopamine & Anticipating Rewards (anthropology.net)
- Faulty signaling in brain increases craving for sugar and drugs (eurekalert.org)
- Dopamine: prediction-error vs. incentive salience (the-mouse-trap.com)
- Porn, Novelty and the Coolidge Effect (psychologytoday.com)
