DOPAMINE CONTROL FOR CONSISTENT MOTIVATION: ALL TOOLS BY ANDREW HUBERMAN

TOP 5 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT DOPAMINE (RECOMMENDED).

You can’t control dopamine to always stay motivated if you don’t even understand how it works. Broadly speaking, dopamine is a neurotransmitter that plays a crucial role in motivation, reward-seeking behavior, learning, focus, and movement.

It’s a vast topic, but only so much that is important for us to know, most of which is related to motivation. So, here are the top 5 most important things to know about dopamine:

1. INTERESTINGLY, DOPAMINE RELEASE PEAKS WHEN A REWARD IS ANTICIPATED, RATHER THAN WHEN THE REWARD IS ACTUALLY OBTAINED.

Here’s why:

  1. It’s released when you receive a reward to reinforce the behavior that led to it, making you more likely to repeat that behavior in the future. This way, dopamine aids in learning and repeating behaviors that result in positive outcomes.For example, when I finally got good grades in a school test, I felt happy and a dopamine spike was responsible for that happiness. The dopamine was attempting to reinforce the behavior that led to my academic success (albeit unsuccessfully).
  2. During the anticipation phase, dopamine is released to motivate us to engage in behaviors associated with the expected reward.When you encounter a cue or context that is associated with a rewarding experience (the smell of pizza, the sound of a notification, or the sight of your crush), our brain predicts the future reward (tasty pizza).The dopamine release encourages us to take action to get that reward (buy that tasty pizza).And as you pursue the reward, dopamine continues to release in response to each step you take toward obtaining it, creating a feedback loop that keeps you at it.

2. DOPAMINE SPIKES ARE FOLLOWED BY A DOPAMINE CRASH, CAUSING LEVELS TO DIP BELOW THE BASELINE (WHERE THEY WERE BEFORE BEING ELEVATED BY THAT DELICIOUS PIZZA).

So, after a great workout (you broke all your personal records), you’ll stay high on dopamine for a while until it crashes, making you feel unmotivated, giving you feelings of fatigue, or even irritability.

This happens due to two main reasons:

  1. The brain’s effort to achieve a balanced state, known as homeostasis. And the crash is proportional to the spike (the more intense the fun, the longer you’ll stay demotivated afterward). It does it to maintain stability and prevent excessive stimulation.
  2. If dopamine levels remained elevated, we will become complacent and less motivated to seek out new rewards. Simple logic, if you’re always happy, you wouldn’t want anything else.The crash creates a sense of “wanting”, asking us to bring dopamine levels back up again.

3. LEARNING AND ADAPTATION ARE CLOSELY LINKED TO THE DOPAMINE SYSTEM.

Dopamine helps your brain learn the cues or behaviors that lead to good outcomes and motivates you to do those things again later.

For instance, let’s say you spot a new fruit on a tree. At first, you might hesitate to try it, but eventually, you give it a shot. And surprise! It’s actually a super tasty and nutritious fruit. Your brain gets the memo, so the next time you see that fruit (or even hints of the tree), your dopamine goes a little wild (spikes).

4. REWARD DEVALUATION: A PREVIOUSLY ENJOYABLE THING LOSES ITS CHARM, AND IT NO LONGER BRINGS YOU THE SAME PLEASURE AS IT DID BEFORE.