What is Dopamine?
Dopamine is known as the feel-good neurotransmitter—a chemical that ferries information between neurons. The brain releases it when we eat food that we crave or while we have sex, contributing to feelings of pleasure and satisfaction as part of the reward system. This important neurochemical boosts mood, motivation, and attention, and helps regulate movement, learning, and emotional responses.
How Dopamine Influences Behavior
In lab experiments, dopamine prompts a rat to press a lever for food again and again. This is no different in humans, it’s the reason why we partake in more than one helping of cake. This press-the-lever action applies to addiction as well. People with low levels of dopamine may be more prone to addiction; a person seeking pleasure via drugs or alcohol or food needs higher and higher levels of dopamine.
How does dopamine make you feel?
Dopamine causes you to want, desire, seek out, and
search. It increases your general level of arousal and your
goal-directed behavior. Dopamine makes you curious about ideas and fuels
your searching for information.Dopamine creates reward-seeking loops in the sense that people will repeat pleasurable behavior, from checking Instagram to taking drugs.
What does it mean to say someone has high levels of dopamine?
A person with high levels of dopamine, whether due to
temperament or to a transient—perhaps chemically induced state—can be
described as a sensation seeker. The upside of sensation seeking
is that people see potential stressors as challenges to be overcome
rather than threats that might crush them. This mindset is a buffer
against the stress of life. It increases their hardiness and resilience in the long term.
What is the dopamine reward circuit?
The release of dopamine creates a reward circuit in the
brain. This circuit registers an intense experience (such as getting
high) as "important" and creates lasting memories of it as pleasurable. Dopamine changes the brain on a cellular level, commanding the brain to do it again.
Psychiatric and Neurodegenerative Disorders
Swedish pharmacologist and neuroscientist
Arvid Carlsson won the Nobel prize in 2000 for his research on
dopamine, showing its importance in brain function. He helped show that
the neurotransmitter is heavily involved in the motor system. When the
brain fails to produce enough dopamine, it can result in Parkinson’s
disease. The primary treatment for Parkinson’s disease is a drug called
L-dopa, which spurs the production of dopamine.
Dopamine has also been implicated in schizophrenia and ADHD; the brain systems underlying these conditions (as well as substance abuse
disorder) are complex. The activity of the dopamine system depends on
the state of one’s dopamine receptors, and in people with these
conditions, the chemical interacts with other factors in ways that have
yet to be explained.
How does dopamine function in the brain?
It is no exaggeration to say that dopamine makes us
human. Beginning in infant development, dopamine levels are critical,
and mental disabilities can arise if dopamine is not present in
sufficient quantities. Dopamine is implicated in genetic conditions like
congenital hypothyroidism. Dopamine deficiency is also implicated in other conditions such as Alzheimer's, depressive disorders, binge-eating, addiction, and gambling.
What is the link between dopamine and conditions like ADHD?
Drugs currently used to treat ADHD do indeed increase the effectiveness of dopamine. This helps patients with ADHD focus and pay better attention to one thing at a time. How exactly more dopamine translates into better concentration and focus is not yet understood.
What is the link between dopamine and Parkinson’s?
In this neurodegenerative disorder, the decline begins
with the dopamine-producing cells in the brain where movement is
coordinated. As these cells degrade, motor function is compromised, which includes tremors, rigidity, bradykinesia or slowed movement, as well as changes in speech and gait.
How to Increase Dopamine
Scientists who study neurological and psychiatric
disorders have long been interested in how dopamine works and how
relatively high or low levels of dopamine in the brain relate to
behavioral challenges and disability.
There are ways to up one's dopamine levels naturally, and
basic self-care is the place to start. A night of fitful sleep, for one,
can reduce dopamine drastically. Here are some tips to boost levels:
- 1. Eat food rich in tyrosine including cheese, meats, fish, dairy, soy, seeds, nuts, beans, lentils, among others. While tyrosine supplements are available, consuming food is preferred.
- 2. Up magnsium intake with foods such as seeds, nuts, soy, beans, whole grains, among others.
- 3. Avoid processed foods, high-fats, sugar, caffeine.
- 4. Proper sleep hygiene is mandatory, as it fuels dopamine production.
- 5. Exercise daily.
- 6. Avoid stress, apply techniques such as meditation, visualizations, breathing exercises.
- 7. Consider the use of natural nootropics including L-Tyrosine and L-theanine.
