Title: The molecule of more: How a single chemical in your brain drives love, sex, and creativity- And will determine the fate of the human race Author: Daniel Z. lieberman Type: #litnote #todevelop —-

The book answers Why do we crave what we don’t have rather than feel good about what we do—and why do fools fall in love? Haunting questions of human biology are answered by The Molecule of More, a must-read about the human condition itself.

Looking up and down. When you look down, everything will be within your reach. But if you look up, you have to plan, think or at least work a little to reach them.

The down world is managed by neurotransmitters in brain called Here & Now Chemicals. It allows you to enjoy the whats infront of you.

The up world is managed by the chemical in brain called dopamine. It makes you desire things that you don’t have yet and drives you to seek new things. It rewards you if you obey it. It makes you suffer when you don’t.

This up chemical is the key to addiction as well as the path to recovery.

Dopamine is the reason why we seek and succeed. It is the reason why we discover and prosper. It is the same reason why we can’t be happy for a long time. Its both a blessing and curse.

The brain is complex. It is not easy to simplify the model of brain. Science is messy. Studies contradict one another.

Dopamine

Dopamine is created by the 0.0005% of the brain cells. Yet it exerts an outsized influence on human behaviors.

Dopamine is not a pleasure hormone

Dopamine was discovered as a pleasure molecule. But it isn’t about pleasure at all. Dopamine delivers a feeling much more influential.

The answer to this is found in the monkey and a light bulb experiment done by Wolfram Schultz. He implanted electrodes on the brain of monkeys and placed them in a box that had two light bulbs and box. Every once in a while the light bulb would turn on. One light bulb suggested that the food was on the right box and another signaled the food was on the left box.

It took sometime for the monkey to figure out the pattern. At first, they randomly opened the boxes and got it right half of the time. And when the found the food in the box, the dopamine circuits fired in their brain.

After they figured out the rule, something strange happened. They reached for the correct food containing box everytime. And the timing of dopamine release shifted from firing at the discovery of food to firing at the light.

For the monkeys, seeing the food was unexpected at first. But as they figured out the rule, seeing the light go on was unexpected. The surprise they fell came from the light instead of food.

This experiment lead to the arousal of new hypothesis: Dopamine is not the pleasure hormone. It is a reaction to the unexpected- the possibility and anticipation.

Dopamine for Love