Dopamine

[Verbe]

I find dopamine absolutely fascinating. It's so interesting to me how we hear these pop-psy buzzwords and cling to them for dear life, like dopamine being the "happy chemical". However, I've been doing tons of research on it and I've been finding out some fascinating things.

Recently in science news, the concept of your gut actually being in control of your emotions really piqued my interest. I mean... Of course it's not just your brain doing stuff! Dopamine has a huge role in gut health. And sometimes we have all the dopamine we need, we just need to stimulate the neuron receptors that are in charge of what we want to accomplish. It's honestly so so interesting. This thread will be filled with some of my random findings but please post anything you find interesting about dopamine!

And in the meantime:

[neonspectraltoast]

I know the guy is in control. Put mashed potatoes in there and I turn happy.

[Amerijuanican]

I hope you have some and enjoy them. Sorry bro.. later

[neonspectraltoast]

That's okay. You couldn't know, but what you said brought back traumatic memories. Please don't tell me I never give love. It's not right.

[Amerijuanican]

duly noted.

[Meliai]

95% of serotonin is made in the gut and not the brain, fun fact! Which is why there's a link between diet and depression

I hope it's cool to bring up serotonin in a dopamine thread lol

I think dopamine is interesting too, and it's link to addiction. I mentioned this in another thread recently but I can't remember the context - in drug use, dopamine levels spike before ingesting the drug. Just the promise of taking the drug releases those feel good chemicals that leave you hungering for more.

I sometimes worry what we're doing collectively to our brains with smart phones. Just constantly flooding our brains with dopamine

[Verbe]

LOL Meliai ooohhhh you wanna bring up dopamine's more popular over achieving sibling that's cool ??

Totally fine! They're related anyways.

Yeah addiction is totally tied to dopamine. It's your reward, basically. I was just reading an article that said you can get a hit of dopamine just by looking at a crack pipe if you do crack cocaine, it's that "rewarding" to the brain

[Jessica]

Kids are learning to shop for dopamine hits, not whatever they actually buy. I see it all the time when they've failed to find something they want, and the parent wants to leave the shop and the kid is like "nooo.. waaaaait.. i want to get something!" *anxiously scanning shelves*

they're feeling desire to buy something without knowing what it is they want to buy. it's all backwards.

and Verbe you reeeally should read 10% Human! You'd definitely find it interesting. The idea that gut health is behind so many mental illnesses and conditions (depression, autism, OCD) is fascinating and not talked about enough.

[neonspectraltoast]

I know I don't have a good diet. Maybe I'll start eating salads. Damn I need mashed potatoes today, though.

I don't see why diet is so complicated. Why can't I just eat whatever the fuck?

[Jessica]

I know I don't have a good diet. Maybe I'll start eating salads. Damn I need mashed potatoes today, though.

I don't see why diet is so complicated. Why can't I just eat whatever the fuck?

well, once in our evolution, everything we ate would have been healthy and you could have just eaten whatever the fuck. it's only complicated because we invented a whole array of food that is not in any way natural.

Salad has a bad reputation but some of them can be so much more than just leaves and stuff. Especially if pasta is involved. Wholewheat pasta is a good source of fibre.

I keep planning to make a thread about really simple healthy food, that doesn't take too much cooking knowledge or learning.

[neonspectraltoast]

That would be nice. Something that a person too depressed due to a poor diet to take care of themselves could make.

Some days I just eat chips.

[Meliai]

There's an addictive quality to junk food too. Sometimes I know it will take the exact same amount of time and effort to throw together a quick salad or eat junk food, and I opt for junk food. And it isn't like it tastes better, I love the taste of a good salad with oil and vinegar. But something in my brain just craves the junk food.

[Meliai]

i said junk food so many times in that paragraph that it has now lost all meaning. junk food junk food junk foodoooo

[Verbe]

You guys should see all the tabs I have open about dopamine. I was trying to write a blog post about what "hard work" really means and I got lost in the sauce lol... but every article has a link to something else and now I'm all kerfuffled

[Audiogen]

I generally think of dopamine as the "reward" neurotransmitter as previously mentioned.

My knowledge is basically that it's correlated with reinforced behaviors, usually a lot of the ones that have the potential for addiction. Drugs, Sex, Food, Social Media, etc.

Cocaine and Crystal Meth are the two notable drugs I would categorize as Dopamine drugs. I believe some studies with rodents have shown that these drugs provide such powerful reinforcement that mice will choose the drugs over food.

MDMA also releases dopamine in a similar way but I view it more as a Serotonin drug. LSD, weed and alcohol stimulate dopamine as well I believe but in different, more specific ways.

[OldSoul]

Serotonin in the gut does a lot more than regulate mood. It plays a large role in the movement of your gut, inflammation etc. Serotonin is also released in inflammatory reactions and can be an irritant in injuries. Plus it doesn't cross the blood brain barrier, so the peripheral serotonin doesn't relate too much to mood. As I've understood it, a lot of the gut health and mood stuff relates to vasovagal stimulation, but I'm not an expert in that field.

I've always found it fascinating that dopamine is absolutely critical for motion. Like what you see in Parkinson's where some subsets of dopamine neurons die. So it is a reward neurotransmitter, but it goes much deeper than that.

But a lot of neurotransmission comes down to where the chemical is released and which receptors it activates in which part of the brain. It goes much deeper than one chemical being related to reward, happiness etc. One chemical, many, many roles.

[Verbe]

Serotonin in the gut does a lot more than regulate mood. It plays a large role in the movement of your gut, inflammation etc. Serotonin is also released in inflammatory reactions and can be an irritant in injuries. Plus it doesn't cross the blood brain barrier, so the peripheral serotonin doesn't relate too much to mood. As I've understood it, a lot of the gut health and mood stuff relates to vasovagal stimulation, but I'm not an expert in that field.

I've always found it fascinating that dopamine is absolutely critical for motion. Like what you see in Parkinson's where some subsets of dopamine neurons die. So it is a reward neurotransmitter, but it goes much deeper than that.

But a lot of neurotransmission comes down to where the chemical is released and which receptors it activates in which part of the brain. It goes much deeper than one chemical being related to reward, happiness etc. One chemical, many, many roles.

yes so important for motion, that's why you shake so much when you do good M

[neonspectraltoast]

Couldn't there be some mechanism besides bloodflow to the brain that regulates mood? I mean, the brain is...no, nevermind I just spooked myself. Pardon me.