Understanding dopamine and its role in motivation, desire, satisfaction, and addiction is the focus of this episode of the Huberman Lab Podcast. The discussion includes dispelling common myths about dopamine, exploring the biology and psychology of dopamine, and how behaviors such as exposure to cold water can induce lasting increases in dopamine levels. The episode also offers tools for leveraging dopamine to sustain energy, drive, and motivation for important tasks over long periods of time.

Roka, InsideTracker, Headspace The chapter discusses the sponsors of the podcast, which are Roka, InsideTracker, and Headspace. Roka offers high-quality eyeglasses and sunglasses designed with the visual system biology in mind. InsideTracker is a personalized nutrition platform that analyzes data from your blood and DNA to help you better understand your body and reach your health goals. Headspace is a meditation app backed by 25 published studies and has over 600,000 five-star reviews.

00 p.m Eastern.

Dopamine is a neuromodulator that influences the communication of many neurons in the brain. It is responsible for motivation, drive, and craving, as well as controlling time perception and movement. The release of dopamine changes the probability of certain neural circuits being active and modulates a range of things, including mindset and feelings of accomplishment. Dopamine is also important for sustaining effort and being a happy person over long periods of time.

the mesocorticolimbic pathway, which influences motivation, drive, and craving, and the nigrostriatal pathway, which is mainly for movement. It's important to remember that there are two pathways, as this becomes significant later.

Dopamine can be released locally or broadly in the brain and body through synapses or volumetric release. Increasing dopamine levels through drugs or supplements can affect both types of release, leading to shorter-lived motivation and pleasure. The height of the peak of dopamine release relative to the baseline is important for the satisfaction and pleasure of experiences.

Dopamine works through G protein-coupled receptors, which is a slower process than the fast electrical synapses ionotropic conduction. Dopamine can have slow and long-lasting effects, and it can even control gene expression. There are two pathways for dopamine to communicate, one for movement and one for motivation and craving, and two spatial scales at which dopamine can operate synaptically or volumetrically.

you are moving towards your goals or not. Dopamine neurons co-release glutamate, an excitatory neurotransmitter that stimulates neurons to be electrically active, making certain neurons more active and increasing levels of alertness and desire to pursue things outside oneself. Dopamine is a universal currency in all mammals, responsible for movement, motivation, and drive, and is the way to track pleasure, success, and whether or not one is doing well or poorly.

The experience of life and level of motivation depends on the recent experience of dopamine. The simple language of dopamine hits neglects the fact that the amount of dopamine experienced from something depends on the baseline level of dopamine when arriving there and previous dopamine peaks.

The Tragic Outbreak of Parkinsonian Symptoms In the 80s, there was an outbreak of Parkinsonian symptoms in a young population due to the consumption of MPTP, which can arise in the synthesis of MPPP, a drug similar to heroin. MPTP kills the dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra and the mesocorticolimbic pathway, leading to the loss of motivation, drive, and movement.

The Importance of Dopamine and My Experience with Thorazine Dopamine is a powerful molecule that shapes our perception of life, mood, motivation, and movement. Having experienced very low levels of dopamine due to Giardia and the use of Thorazine, an antipsychotic drug that blocks dopamine receptors, the narrator emphasizes the importance of maintaining dopaminergic neuron health and understanding dopamine fluctuations. The use of l-DOPA can help recover dopamine levels and access peaks in dopamine.

Everyone has a different baseline level of dopamine, which is partly genetic. Dopamine and epinephrine (adrenaline) are closely related and tend to work together to color the subjective experience of an activity and provide energy and excitement.

Dopamine levels are influenced by genetics and experiences. Certain activities and substances can increase dopamine levels transiently, with varying degrees of increase and duration. Chocolate, sex, nicotine, cocaine, and amphetamine all cause significant increases in dopamine levels, while the impact of exercise and other activities depends on subjective enjoyment. The prefrontal cortex plays a role in assigning a subjective experience to something, and engaging with something more can increase its rewarding properties and dopamine release.

Regular ingestion of caffeine increases the number and density of G protein-coupled receptors, which makes a person able to experience more of dopamine's effects. However, layering together multiple substances and activities that lead to big increases in dopamine can create severe issues with motivation and energy.

Pursuit, Excitement & Your “Dopamine Setpoint” Dopamine is the universal currency of forging and seeking, which drives us to seek things that provide sustenance and pleasure in the short-term and extend the species in the long-term. The extent to which dopamine drops below baseline after a peak is proportional to how high the peak was, and this drop in baseline dopamine after any peak in dopamine is substantial, which governs whether or not we are going to feel motivated to continue to pursue other things.

Understanding the Role of Dopamine in Addiction Dopamine is a driver for us to seek things, and it makes perfect sense as to why it would have a baseline level and peaks. The drop in baseline dopamine after any peak in dopamine is substantial, and it always takes a little while to get back to our stable baseline. If we continue to indulge in the same behaviors or even different behaviors that increase our dopamine in these big peaks over and over again, we won't experience the same level of joy from those behaviors or from anything at all, which has a name called addiction.

Dr. Anna Lembke's book "Dopamine Nation" and "Molecule of More" focus on dopamine schedules and the relationship between peaks and baselines of dopamine. The pleasure-pain balance is governed by dopamine, where pleasure comes from dopamine release and pain comes from the lack of dopamine that follows. The balance hinges on how much dopamine is there and how much is ready and capable of being released into the system.

Addiction occurs when someone pursues a drug or activity that leads to huge increases in dopamine, which depletes the dopamine readily releasable pool, leading to a severe drop in baseline. This can cause people to feel lousy and make the mistake of pursuing the dopamine evoking activity or substance again, which depletes dopamine even more and can lead to a narrowing of the things that bring pleasure. People who engage in activities that evoke dopamine release, such as drinking, eating, and exercising, can experience a drop in baseline dopamine, which can be imperceptible at first but can eventually lead to a threshold of low dopamine. To replenish the releasable pool of dopamine, people should not engage in dopaminergic seeking behaviors and limit interactions with dopamine evoking substances or activities. This can help maintain or even raise the level of dopamine baseline and achieve feelings of elevated motivation, desire, and craving.

Optimal Ways to Release Dopamine Engaging in activities or consuming things that evoke dopamine can be beneficial for our wellbeing and experience of life. However, it is important to engage in these activities in ways that are healthy and beneficial for us. The key lies in intermittent release of dopamine, which can be achieved through intermittent reward schedules.

Maintaining a Healthy Baseline of Dopamine Maintaining a healthy baseline of dopamine is crucial for maintaining motivation and pleasure for activities such as school, exercise, and relationships. It is important to not expect or chase high levels of dopamine release every time we engage in these activities and to vary the amount of dopamine experienced with each engagement. Intermittent schedules, such as flipping a coin to decide whether or not to allow dopamine supportive elements, can be helpful in achieving this.

The use of smartphones while engaging in other activities can lead to disruptions or lowering in baseline levels of dopamine, which can cause depression and lack of motivation. Layering in too many sources of dopamine can make activities less pleasureful, and removing multiple sources of dopamine release can help to enjoy activities more.

The use of stimulants every time for any activity that one would like to continue to enjoy and be motivated at, except caffeine, is cautioned against as it depletes dopamine over time, reducing the level of satisfaction and joy that one gets from the activities. The chronic use of stimulants to enhance motivation, focus, and drive will ultimately undermine them.

The source of caffeine matters as it can increase the density and efficacy of dopamine receptors. Yerba mate, which contains caffeine, antioxidants, and GLP-1, has been shown to be neuroprotective for dopaminergic neurons, preserving the survival of dopamine neurons in both the movement-related pathway and the motivation pathway.

Caffeine has been shown to increase the toxicity of MDMA receptors, which can lead to more toxicity of MDMA. While caffeine has protective properties for a particular dopamine neuron, it can be dangerous when combined with MDMA. The neurotoxicity of MDMA is still controversial, but most data suggest that it might not be neurotoxic.

Amphetamine and cocaine can limit the brain's ability to change in response to experience, which is the basis of learning and memory, due to the high peak in dopamine that it creates and the low dopamine state that it creates afterwards. This effect can be long-lasting and can put the brain into a state in which it cannot learn and modify itself to get better.

The use of drugs like Adderall, Ritalin, modafinil and armodafinil can significantly improve the symptoms of people with ADHD due to the large increases in dopamine. However, caution should be taken against non-prescription use of these drugs as it could lead to a blockade of neuroplasticity similar to cocaine and amphetamine due to the comparable amount of dopamine increase triggered by these compounds.

Cold exposure, such as taking cold showers or ice baths, can increase dopamine levels and provide sustained increases in dopamine baseline levels. Cold water exposure triggers a release of epinephrine and norepinephrine, and dopamine levels rise slowly and continue to rise up to three hours after exposure. The increase in dopamine from cold water exposure is comparable to what one sees from cocaine, but it is a sustained rise that takes a long time to come back down to baseline. Cold water exposure can evoke a long-lasting increase in dopamine without ingesting anything, and it is a zero-cost way of triggering this increase.

Tuning Your Dopamine for Ongoing Motivation The way dopamine relates to our perception of time can make hard work much more challenging and make us much less likely to lean into hard work in the future. To achieve a better relationship to our activities and dopamine system, we need to learn to access the rewards from effort and doing, and subjectively start to attach the feeling of friction and effort to an internally generated reward system.

The Antithesis of Growth Mindset When we focus only on the trophy, only on the grade, only on the win as the reward, we undermine the entire process of growth mindset. To cultivate growth mindset, we need to learn to access the rewards from effort and doing, and subjectively start to attach the feeling of friction and effort to an internally generated reward system. We need to tell ourselves that in that moment we are doing it by choice and we're doing it because we love it.

Intermittent fasting can help in spiking dopamine levels by attaching dopamine to effort and strain instead of the reward that naturally evokes dopamine release. Fasting can evoke more dopamine release when the receptors for dopamine have not seen much dopamine lately, and it can also increase the rewarding properties of deprivation.

A study published in the journal Neuron showed that hearing something that reinforces one's prior beliefs can evoke dopamine release, making the dopamine pathway vulnerable to subjective interpretation. This means that when we see or hear something that validates our beliefs, it can increase dopamine release and shape our perception of pleasure.

but also your prior experiences with other foods that evoke dopamine. Consuming highly palatable foods can make less processed, whole foods taste less appealing, but quitting sugar and highly palatable foods for just a few days can reset your taste buds and make healthier foods taste delicious again.

The accessibility and intensity of pornography can negatively affect real-world romantic and sexual interactions due to the release of dopamine. This can lead to addiction and challenges in such interactions.

Wellbutrin, also known as bupropion, is a drug that increases dopamine and norepinephrine levels and is used as an alternative treatment for depression. It avoids sexual side effects and can blunt appetite, but it can also increase anxiety due to the stimulating effects of dopamine and norepinephrine. Nonetheless, it has been found to be a useful drug for depression and smoking cessation.

Mucuna Pruriens is a supplement that contains l-DOPA, the precursor to dopamine, and can increase dopamine levels transiently and intensely. It can also reduce prolactin levels, increase sperm concentration, quality, and motility, but consuming it can lead to a crash or a reduction in dopamine levels.

L-tyrosine is a common supplement used to increase energy, alertness, and focus. It is taken in capsule or powder form and can increase dopamine levels within 30 to 45 minutes of ingestion, but the effects are short-lasting and can lead to a crash afterwards. L-tyrosine has a specific effect on dopamine pathways and should not be taken regularly or by those with pre-existing dopaminergic conditions.

Melatonin supplementation can reduce dopamine levels, and it is not recommended except for treating jet lag. A study found that melatonin administration caused a significant decrease in dopamine levels. Additionally, exposure to bright lights between 10pm-4am can also reduce dopamine levels for several days. Therefore, it is advisable to avoid melatonin supplementation and bright lights during this time.

PEA, found in various foods including chocolate, can increase synaptic levels of dopamine. Taking 500 milligrams of PEA and 300 milligrams of Alpha-GPC can lead to a sharp but transient increase in dopamine lasting about 30 to 45 minutes, making it useful for mental work. It is important to check with a doctor before taking any supplements.

Huperzine A is a compound that can increase acetylcholine transmission and somehow leads to increases in dopamine in the medial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. It is gaining popularity for increasing dopamine and as a nootropic. However, it is recommended to gain knowledge about how it functions and whether or not it is right for an individual before consuming it.

Oxytocin, social connection, and pair bonding trigger dopamine release, which is important for seeking and reward. Social connections, particularly close ones that evoke oxytocin release, are essential for any species where social connections are important.

The lecture discusses the indirect effects of substances like Maca root and the gut microbiome on dopamine pathways. It emphasizes that dopamine levels are under an individual's control and provides tools to tap into the dopaminergic system for modulation and adjustment.

Listeners can support the podcast by subscribing to their YouTube channel, leaving comments and suggestions, subscribing to them on Apple and Spotify, checking out their sponsors, making a tax-deductible donation to the research at Stanford, supporting the podcast on Patreon, and purchasing high-quality supplements from Thorne. They can also follow them on Instagram and Twitter for more neuroscience tools and information.