diff --git a/episode 012 - How to Increase Motivation & Drive/epsisode 012 - transcript.md b/episode 012 - How to Increase Motivation & Drive/epsisode 012 - transcript.md index cc9c3a3..05b0ae0 100644 --- a/episode 012 - How to Increase Motivation & Drive/epsisode 012 - transcript.md +++ b/episode 012 - How to Increase Motivation & Drive/epsisode 012 - transcript.md @@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ So how does this work? Well, you've got a structure in the deep part of your bra However, within the reward pathway, there's also a brake, the brake or restriction on that dopamine, which controls when it's released, and how much it's released, is the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is the neural real estate right behind your forehead. It's discussed for so many aspects of neuroscience, you hear about it for decision making, executive function for planning, etc. And indeed, it's responsible for a lot of those. It's this really unique real estate that we were all endowed with as humans, other animals don't have much of it, we have a lot of it. And that prefrontal cortex acts as a brake on the dopamine system. Without that break, you would be purely a pleasure seeking animal, you would be purely pleasure seeking, you would have no basis for regulating your behavior in terms of trying to get things that make you feel good. -## Motivation= Pleasure Plus Pain +## Motivation: Pleasure Plus Pain And that brings us to the important feature of motivation, which is that motivation is a two part process, which is about balancing pleasure and pain. Okay, most people think about motivation and reward, and dopamine is just trying to achieve pleasure. And indeed, dopamine is released in the brain from the VA at the nucleus accumbens, when we experience things that we like. So here's the way to conceptualize this. And if you can internalize this, in your mind, it will really help you as you move through your day trying to understand why you might be motivated or not motivated for certain things. So when you're just sitting around not doing much of anything, maybe you wake up in bed in the morning, you're thinking about getting, getting up or not, this reward pathway is releasing dopamine at a rate of about three or four times per second, it's kind of firing in a low level when I say firing me an electrical activity in the neurons. So when you're just around, you feel okay, not depressed, not highly motivated, not excited, maybe three or four times a second. If suddenly, you get excited about something, you anticipate something, not receive an award, but you get excited in an anticipatory way, then the rate of firing the rate of activity in this reward pathway suddenly increases to like 30 or 40 times. And it has the effect of creating a sense of action or desire to move in the direction of the thing that you're craving. In fact, it's fair to say that dopamine is responsible for one thing and for craving, and that's distinctly different from the way that you hear it talked about normally, which is that it's involved in pleasure. @@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ So here's the way to conceptualize this. And if you can internalize this, in you So yes, dopamine is released in response to sex, it's released in response to food, it's released in response to a lot of things. But it's mostly released in anticipation and craving for a particular thing. It has the effect of narrowing our focus for the thing that we crave. And that thing could be as simple as a cup of coffee, it could be as important as a big board meeting, it could be a big final exam, it could be the person that we're excited to meet or see, dopamine doesn't care about what you're craving, it just releases at a particular rate. In fact, if we just take a step back, and we look at the scientific data on how much the dopamine firing increases in response to different things, you get a pretty interesting window into how your brain works and why you might be motivated or not motivated. ## The Dopamine Staircase: Food, Sex, Nicotine, Cocaine, Amphetamine -Let's say you're hungry, or you're looking forward to a cup of coffee, or you're going to see your partner. Well, your dopamine neurons are firing at a low rate until you start thinking about the thing that you want or the thing that you're looking forward to. Let's say you're craving chocolate or a good meal, steak if you like steak, or a nice plate of pasta, if you like pasta. When you eat that food, the amount of dopamine that's released in Reward pathway goes up about 50% above baseline, the neurons there go from firing, you know, three or four times per second to, you know, six or 10 times per second, it really depends. And these aren't exact numbers. But if we were to measure the amount of dopamine that's released, it goes up about 50%. Alright, set sex, which is fundamental to our species, continuation and reproduction, although it doesn't have to be for for conceiving children. Sex does release dopamine and increases dopamine levels about 100%. So basically doubles. From nicotine of the sort that's in cigarettes, or some people are taking nicotine in supplemental form, increases the amount of dopamine about 150% above baseline. It also does some other things that we're going to talk about. But nicotine does that. And it's kind of interesting that nicotine would increase the amount of dopamine in your brain very quickly, within seconds, that's 150 times over baseline as opposed to sex which is 100% above or food which is 50%. Cocaine and amphetamine increased the amount of dopamine that's released 1000 fold within about 10 seconds of consuming the drug. +Let's say you're hungry, or you're looking forward to a cup of coffee, or you're going to see your partner. Well, your dopamine neurons are firing at a low rate until you start thinking about the thing that you want or the thing that you're looking forward to. Let's say you're craving chocolate or a good meal, steak if you like steak, or a nice plate of pasta, if you like pasta. When you eat that food, the amount of dopamine that's released in Reward pathway goes up about 50% above baseline, the neurons there go from firing, you know, three or four times per second to, you know, six or 10 times per second, it really depends. And these aren't exact numbers. But if we were to measure the amount of dopamine that's released, it goes up about 50%, alright. Sex, which is fundamental to our species, continuation and reproduction, although it doesn't have to be for for conceiving children. Sex does release dopamine and increases dopamine levels about 100%. So basically doubles. From nicotine of the sort that's in cigarettes, or some people are taking nicotine in supplemental form, increases the amount of dopamine about 150% above baseline. It also does some other things that we're going to talk about. But nicotine does that. And it's kind of interesting that nicotine would increase the amount of dopamine in your brain very quickly, within seconds, that's 150 times [sic] over baseline as opposed to sex which is 100% above or food which is 50%. Cocaine and amphetamine increased the amount of dopamine that's released 1000 fold within about 10 seconds of consuming the drug. ## Subjective Control of Dopamine Release However, just thinking about food, about sex, about nicotine, if you like nicotine, or cocaine or amphetamine, can increase the amount of dopamine that's released to the same degree as actually consuming the drug. Now, it depends, in some cases, for instance, the cocaine user, the attic that wants cocaine can't just think about cocaine, and increase the amount of that's released about a thousandfold, it's actually much lower. But it's just enough to put them on the motivation track for it to crave that particular thing.