Andrew Huberman· PhD
Dopamine, therefore is not about the ability to experience pleasure, it is about motivation for pleasure.
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The evidence is convergent. Multiple independent sources reach the same conclusion, the underlying mechanism is well-characterized, and even the field's most cautious voices treat it as worth doing.
Dopamine, therefore is not about the ability to experience pleasure, it is about motivation for pleasure.
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It turns out it isn't, it's about anticipation of reward, and it's about generating the motivation, the goal-directed behavior needed to go get that reward.
Dopamine is not about pleasure. Dopamine is about motivation, craving and pursuit for goals or for things that are outside our immediate possession and experience.
Dopamine therefore is not about the ability to experience pleasure it is about motivation for pleasure
So many people talk about dopamine as not really about pleasure, but about wanting and about motivation.
Well, uh, in reality, dopamine is not necessarily a molecule of reward. It's a molecule of motivation, pursuit, and drive.
it is mainly a molecule of motivation, craving, and pursuit. And that motivation, craving and pursuit that relates to dopamine is not unique to attachment or love or sex or mating etc. It is a universal generic currency in the brain for pursuing something.