Thx to Zeke, on some real thoughts :) Preface: John Salamone, professor of psychology and a researcher of the brain chemical dopamine refutes the idea in a recent article The Mysterious Motivational Functions of Mesolimbic Dopamine that the neurotransmitter dopamine is connected to feelings of pleasure. He claims that the idea of dopamine being associated directly with producing feelings of pleasure is a story constructed years ago based on the fact that scientists chose to focus on certain research results without paying attention to or ignoring other relevant and significant findings. Salamone states that although it has become traditional to label dopamine neurons as ‘‘reward’’ neurons, this is an overgeneralization. Salome states that although there is an enormous amount of literature going back decades linking dopamine to aspects of aversive motivation and learning, the established tendency has been to emphasize dopaminergic involvement in reward, pleasure, addiction, and reward-related learning. He lists research in addition to his own that states that there is a large amount of evidence showing dopamine transmission is not directly responsible for hedonic reactions to stimuli.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 15:05:31 +0000