Dropping da neuroscience seems to have even gotten some street cred lately: a google search of “dopamine rap” pops up the hip hop artist Dopamine. His myspace profile boasts, “Dopamine is a neurochemical occuring naturally in the brain. It is responsible for movement and emotion, much like the music this artist creates.” Not exactly right, but I guess close enough for Myspace.
At least it’s a better description than the one Made With Molecules uses in describing their dopamine necklace: “love, passion & pleasure,” which annoyingly perpetuates the stereotype of dopamine as a pleasure chemical.
I can hear you all asking, “so if dopamine isn’t a pleasure chemical what is it? Cause dude I‚ÄîI mean a friend of mine‚Äîonce did some coke and said it was a blast!” The quick answer is that dopamine is involved in learning and the pleasure one feels is a secondary effect of the rewarding nature of the drug. The long answer is as overwhelmingly verbose as one would expect, and frankly no one really completely understands it yet. I can however give a slightly more informed yet still understandable version, which in the very least might help you seem smart at cocktail parties.
Dopamine “the slightly more informed” Primer
Let’s start by destroying a metaphor. You’re brain is not a bathtub with neuron spigots for neurochemicals labeled “happy” or “pleasure.” In fact, the chemicals themselves are valueless and are often used in rather unrelated sections of the brain and body. Dopamine is no different, but we’re just gonna focus on it’s function in the reward and learning system.
In the spirit of accessible and interesting approaches to science, I’ve constructed an little neuro-allegory entitled “The Shrine of Wa-King and the Dopa-monks”.
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