Dopamine is often nicknamed the pleasure molecule, and the brain pathways dopamine-producing cells make are called the reward circuit. The greater the activity in these pathways, the greater the high you feel.

Why would evolution create such a system? Well, definitely not so we could get addicted to chocolate or nicotine, or other drugs. The primary goal was to create a drive that would motivate us to seek food to survive. It is much more than pleasure.

Dopamine Is Not A Pleasure Molecule

The notion that dopamine is a pleasure molecule was largely debunked by the experiments of Wolfram Schultz, who monitored the brains of macaque monkeys placed in a device with two boxes and two light bulbs. When the left light bulb lit up, a pellet would be dropped into the left box, and when the right light bulb lit up, the food pellet would be in the right box. Initially, the monkeys would randomly open boxes and receive a dopamine shot when they found the food. After a while, they figured out the system and were one hundred percent correct. However, the dopamine release changed. It no longer happened at the discovery of the food pellet but at the switch on of the light. This led Schultz to the conclusion that dopamine is not a pleasure molecule per se, but rather a reaction to something unexpected or an anticipation of the pleasure to come. It was the light that was unexpected and that heralded the possibility of food in the box. The fact that the food was indeed there was expected.

A similar situation also happens during learning. In another of Schultz’s experiments with monkeys, the responses during learning occurred because the reward wasn’t reliably predicted. The unexpected occurrence of reward is of critical importance for learning. Thus, dopamine neurons play an important role in reward-driven learning.

Now we know that the dopamine rush is triggered by novelty, by surprises, by the unexpected. Once something gets normalized, it is fully expected. There is no novelty, no surprise, and therefore, dopamine release doesn’t get triggered.

For example, you may experience a dopamine release when meeting your new romantic partner, but once you settle down with them and things become routine, dopamine levels quiet down. The pleasure and excitement you initially experienced disappear. That is why many people then seek other activities or even romantic partners to trigger the dopamine release again.

Our Brain Is A Prediction Machine

Our brain is a prediction machine. We constantly make predictions about the future, which allows us to react quickly to any actual situation we encounter. However, sometimes we get the prediction wrong. The so-called prediction error then leads to surprise, and this potentially pleasant error releases a dose of dopamine in the brain.

Have you found a hundred-dollar bill in your wallet you forgot you had? Have you gone to a pub and discovered that there is an unexpected happy hour? These were things you didn’t predict, and because of that, they brought you an additional pleasure you wouldn’t get if you knew what was coming.

Our brain behaves differently to the close, peripersonal world and the far, extrapersonal world. Either we have something, it is near, in our possession, or we don’t. It makes evolutionary sense. The things we have are dramatically different from those we don’t, from a survival perspective. The food you have and the food you don’t have are two completely different things. Dopamine works especially in the extrapersonal world on things you don’t have but that you anticipate you might have. That’s why they desire to go and get them. Dopamine leads to the drive to maximize resources we don’t have yet.

It has worked with food for thousands of years, and it continues to work even today. For example, when gambling. The anticipation of winning is so strong that you keep playing, even when you are constantly losing money. Just imagine the possibilities if you get lucky and win big. Casinos and their various gaming devices, such as slot machines, are designed to keep you engaged. You get a constant trigger for your dopamine circuit by various rings, lights, and bells that indicate that you are so close. You even get an occasional small win to reaffirm your belief that good things are coming.

This was first demonstrated by Burrhus Frederic Skinner, an American psychologist. He created the operant conditioning chamber and conducted experiments with pigeons. In one of them, when the pigeons pecked at the lever, they would get a food pellet. Nothing exciting about that. However, when he changed the experiment and the distribution of the food pellet was random, sometimes it would come and sometimes not, the birds became excited and pecked on the lever more manically. In fact, a pigeon could peck at the lever 2.5 times per second for 16 hours. Another one would do it over 87,000 times in the span of 14 hours. That is some serious gambling addiction.

When there is no novelty, no surprises, and no anticipation, we stop relying on dopamine to keep the drive and shift towards experience. That is why, for many relationships, the transition from dopamine-fueled novelty to reality-based experience is so difficult. Once the love and dopamine are gone, the relationships often break, and the romantic partners seek out new partners to get their dopamine high again.

Many then become addicted to falling in love and can’t help but keep falling in love and breaking up over and over again. Hopefully, at some point, they realize what’s happening and that they can’t live like this. They mature and come to understand that being an addict, even if it is addicting to falling in love, is not going to make them satisfied and happy with their lives.

Dopamine Is An Anticipation Molecule

Dopamine is the anticipation molecule. Once we get something, our brain doesn’t release dopamine anymore, but it will only do so when we find a new object of our desires. We want more.

To be satisfied with what we have, we need to rely more on chemicals like serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins. These chemicals give us pleasure from the here and now, from the sensations we experience right now.

When it comes to relationships, we transition from a dopamine-fueled, passionate love to an oxytocin-fueled, companionate love. It is the novelty that keeps us together, but on the contrary, it is the bond and the need to take care of each other and have someone in our lives we can rely on. We want stability, not change.

Once the dopamine-fueled excitement of acquiring something new, such as a new car or a new romantic partner, evaporates, the time for enjoyment arrives. However, it often doesn’t or is much shorter than expected. Dopamine sells you on the dream, but has zero impact on making the dream come true. You get the car and enjoy it for a couple of days before it becomes old news. Dopamine made a promise and then didn’t deliver on it. It is called buyer’s remorse. It is the feeling we get when we buy something because we picture a bright future once we have it, and the object we purchased hasn’t made us as happy as we expected.

What can you do about the disillusionment of buyer’s remorse? You can continue to buy more things to maintain a high level of dopamine. Alternatively, you can go the other direction and avoid disappointment by not making a purchase. You won’t experience the dopamine high coming from the anticipation of future pleasures, but you also won’t experience buyer’s remorse. The last option is to find ways to acquire things and have dopamine-fueled expectations, and then make the transition to longer-lasting enjoyment easier, which is not an easy task. The best way is to buy things not meant for pleasure but rather for utility and get into the mindset of gratitude. If you wake up every day with the thought of how grateful you are for the things you have in your life, you will enjoy them more and longer.

Dopamine And Prediction Error

The dopamine circuit that rewards the prediction error is an important way in which we seek out new things and learn. When you discover something new, you get your dopamine shot. Still, when you return to the same place or do the same activity the second time, you already predicted correctly what you will find there or how you will feel. Therefore, there is no prediction error and no dopamine high. That is how nature intended the system to work.

However, you can circumvent this self-suppressing dopamine circuit by taking drugs. They scramble this system altogether and ignore the reward of the prediction error. They trigger dopamine release regardless of whether it is the first time or the hundredth time you take the drug. It is not about learning about the world. It is all about getting more of the drug.

The problem with addictions is that we prioritize short-term pleasure and ignore long-term consequences. We may even know that what we are about to do is not healthy, is dangerous, is addictive, yet we do it. The promise of the immediate pleasure is simply too big to ignore.

Nicotine is one of the most curious drugs. Most smokers don’t like cigarettes the first time they try them. They don’t get the high you get from more serious drugs or alcohol. Some may say that it helps them relax, but it is more the ritual than the actual nicotine that does that. Nicotine does only one thing. It satisfies the craving for itself. It’s a vicious circle. The point of smoking is to satisfy the craving for a cigarette. The craving for a cigarette is caused by smoking. Why are so many people addicted to cigarettes when they don’t get high on them? Simple. They are easy to obtain. Drug abuse is directly correlated with the ease with which you can obtain it. Make something less available, and fewer people will get addicted. A common sense, really.

Dopamine Is Driving Our Efforts

Many things influence the quality of our efforts, but one thing is clear. As we have seen, the drive to do something, anything, comes from dopamine. Without dopamine, there is no drive and no effort.

You can get addicted to many things, even to achievement. You probably know someone in your circle, or you may even be that person yourself, who has an immense drive to get things done and keeps going. Once they achieve their goal, they don’t even stop to enjoy it. Instead, they move on to the next goal, the next adventure. They keep working hard, never to truly enjoy the fruits of their labor. They don’t do it for the fame or money. They just need the thrill it brings them to build something. Once things are done, stable, and there is little to do, they become bored quickly.

It is the building part, the getting things done part, that keeps them going. They need the rush of dopamine that drives them to picture a future and work hard on building it. They lack the fine balance of the more present-focused neurotransmitters that would allow them to enjoy the future they built. It is all about continuous improvement and moving forward. Like sharks, they can’t stand still as they feel they would die. They enjoy the journey more than the end. If the work is completed and there is nothing new to build, they become unhappy. They need to keep building more.

One area where dopamine can be extremely useful is in achieving mastery. Mastery in terms of getting pleasure from being good at something. It is the intrinsic dopamine-fueled motivation that keeps us pursuing mastery in our selected field or activity. We enjoy the journey because there is no real finish line. We enjoy even the failures along the way as they make our efforts less predictable.

Along the way, there are milestones where the master can pause and appreciate the results of their efforts, setting dopamine aside for a while before embarking on the journey again. Masters feel they have their life under control. They understand that it is only their efforts that matter, and they don’t get discouraged by the environment or external circumstances.

Putting It All Together

To take advantage of the way your brain works, start some creative activities that require both your brain and your body to cooperate. Get into sports, start cooking, painting, gardening, playing a musical instrument, anything that will push you to get better and better, where you will need your hands and brain to work in tandem, and where you can see actual results of your efforts. There is something very satisfying about seeing that you have created something.

Trying new things to improve means that there is an element of anticipation. Will it work? Will we succeed? Our brain anticipates. Our brain makes prediction errors. And we are getting shots of dopamine. It keeps us engaged and moving forward. It is a lifelong pursuit that is its own reward.

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