Andrew Huberman· PhD
I don't know that the dopamine reward system which is the fundamental currency of pursuit and reward across all time scales it's kind of wild right one neuromodulator and there are other things involved that modulate that modulator but one neuromodulator is involved in reward Pursuit across all time scales whether we're playing a let's say we're both competitive enough to play a game of chess or Checkers dopamine is motivating the pursuit for the win or a four-year degree or an eight-year degree or why you would want maybe your kids to win a soccer game like now you're like a third personing dopamine right it's across all time scales all scenarios it's incredible and across many species so it makes me wonder and I'll have to ask some of my colleagues that work on these dopamine reward schedules for a living whether or not the dopamine reward system actually can do exponential math it might not be able to do exponential math it might be that the pursuit of water the pursuit of mates the pursuit of food the pursuit of shelter which is what these dopamine circuits evolved under the constraints of whether or not they even capable of doing exponential thinking