Thoughtware.TV

Dopamine And The Frontal Lobes

"This is your brain.
Here are the neurons that produce dopamine.
When these neurons are activated they release dopamine here, in the frontal lobes.

Dopamine is motivation. When dopamine is released you feel motivated to keep on doing whatever it is you're doing. Dopamine is what makes things seem important and meaningful.

Your frontal lobes are where thoughts are formed. If your frontal lobes are low on dopamine you get bored and start looking for something that can stimulate your dopamine neurons to release more dopamine into your frontal lobes.

Food, drink, sex, social pleasure and addictive drugs activate dopamine neurons directly, that's why they can be so addictive. Interesting sights and sounds can also activate dopamine neurons, that's why you're still watching this video.

The frontal lobes themselves can form a positive feedback loop with the dopamine neurons - that's called 'thinking'. Very few people can form a positive feedback loop like that without thinking - that's called 'meditation' and is really difficult - most people need to think about something interesting; something they're doing or looking at or something that's happened in their lives or plans and hopes they have for the future. That's why we never stop thinking - our frontal lobes are drawn to whatever thought releases most dopamine. That's also how long-term thinking and self-discipline works: we use our frontal lobes to activate our dopamine neurons even though what we're doing is boring or difficult.

People vary in how well their frontal lobes can activate their dopamine neurons - people with attention deficit disorder or addiction have great problems with it - and most of us find it difficult to go for a salad and supply our own dopamine rather than having a cake or a burger, which activate them dopamine neurons directly.

Personally, I think we all struggle with how to activate our dopamine neurons. What we do doesn't seem very meaningful and the few things that really motivate us are short-sighted things that don't involve our frontal lobes much and that get us into trouble in the long run.

If only there was another way."