Our choices are dramatically influenced by the chemicals circulating through our bodies – so how much free choice do we really have? Is free will just an illusion?  - Ilene

Can Dopamine Make Your Future Look Brighter?

By John Cloud, courtesy of TIME

Humans have expended a great deal of intellectual energy over the past few thousand years trying to understand the morality (or amorality) of seeking pleasure. Most of philosophy begins with the question of what defines the (or a) good life. But what if the answer to what makes us happy comes down to how much of a particular chemical is circulating in our brain at any particular moment?

(As with risk taking, romantic love, religousness…. – Ilene)

The neurotransmitter dopamine isn’t quite that powerful, but evidence has been mounting for the past 40 years that its activity is key to helping the brain recognize experiences that cause pleasure. The more dopamine a certain event (having sex or eating ice cream, say) triggers, the more strongly that event gets hard-wired in the brain, and the more intensely your brain drives you to revisit it.

That knowledge also helps the brain figure out how much pleasure it can expect from future experiences and, therefore, influences virtually any decision you make about what you might like or not like: whether you should buy the red shirt or black one, whether you’ll enjoy watching Top Chef over Mad Men, whether you should leave your job or whether you should move in with your boyfriend.

Now a new paper in the journal Current Biology shows for the first time that by tinkering with levels of dopamine in the brain, researchers were be able to influence people’s future decisions in a reliable, predictable way. Led by Tali Sharot and Tamara Shiner of the the Wellcome Trust Center for Neuroimaging at University College London, scientists presented 61 healthy volunteers with 80 different vacation locations, such as Brazil, Thailand and Greece, and asked the volunteers to rate how happy they thought they would be visiting each place. Later, 29 of the participants were given 100 mg of levodopa (or L-DOPA), a drug that increases dopamine in the brain; the other 32 were unwittingly given a sugar pill. Forty minutes later, each participant was given a questionnaire about their emotional state, then a list containing half of the previously rated destinations. They were asked to imagine themselves vacationing in each of the far-flung locations.

The next day (once the L-DOPA had cleared from the body), all the participants were brought back and presented with 40 pairs of vacation spots, each pair containing locations to which they had given equal ratings in the first part of the experiment. Participants were asked to pick which of each pair of places they would prefer to visit. It turned out that those who had imagined themselves vacationing the previous day under the influence of dopamine were significantly more likely to predict they’d be happier in those same spots. That same preference didn’t occur in the placebo group.

The findings suggest that when dopamine is present during an imagined event — that is, even when you’re not actually experiencing it in person — it still influences how much pleasure the brain will expect from it in the future. Researchers think the extra shot of dopamine may aid learning — that is, it boosts your brain’s learned association between pleasure and whatever experience you’re thinking about at the time. Or perhaps, the authors speculate, the extra dopamine makes us simply want something more while we’re imagining it. In other words, it would be useful to have a bit of L-DOPA handy now, while you’re preparing for your future visit to the in-laws’ over the holidays.

The interesting thing was that the presence of dopamine didn’t make participants feel any happier at the time they took it. According to the questionnaires that the volunteers filled out, there was no difference in the current emotional state of people who got the sugar pill versus those who got L-DOPA, while they were imagining their vacations. But the drug did change people’s predictions about their future emotional state.

It’s possible, then, that the more dopamine that is active in your brain, the more likely you are to view the future as rosy, which raises at least two questions: how do I get more dopamine, and is there such a thing as too much?

The answer to the latter question is, yes. Although dopamine may be crucial to making decisions about future pleasure, too much of it might distort those decisions. A surplus of dopamine is at the root of addiction, for instance: Cocaine, for one, works in part by preventing brain cells from reabsorbing dopamine that the brain has released in connection with pleasurable sensations. And once the brain has learned to like cocaine, it causes all kinds of self-destructive behavior to satisfy its cravings.

Too little dopamine, meantime, can lead to movement disorders like Parkinson’s disease. An excess is thought to be a cause of schizophrenia. The research suggests that most of us should not try to manipulate our dopamine levels with drugs. On a therapeutic level, however, interfering with the chemical could lead to new treatments for conditions as varied as drug addiction and mental disease.

See also:  Why dopamine makes you take risks, TIME.

And: The Chemistry of Depression, About.com

A third substance that may play a role in mood is dopamine. Dopamine is associated with the reward, or reinforcement, that we get which causes us to continue participating in an activity. It has been implicated in such conditions as Parkinson’s Disease and schizophrenia. There is also some evidence that, at least for a subset of patients, dopamine plays a role in depression.6 Dopaminergic substances and stimulants have been used as antidepressants when other measures have failed.7 Some studies have investigated dopaminergic agents as a rapid method of relieving depression (in contrast to medications which may take up to six weeks to exhibit their full effect).8

Although agents that work selectively on dopamine have the benefit of fast action, they have also exhibited some properties which have kept them from being as widely used as other antidepressants. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is associated with addiction and it’s production is stimulated by drugs such as cocaine, opiates and alcohol (which may explain why depressed persons choose to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol.9) Drug specifically targeted at dopamine, for example amineptine (Survector), present the potential for abuse.10 For this reason, amineptine is not approved for use in the US or Britain at this time.

Rolling into the holidays, we find a common societal theme of thankfulness, altruism, and pleasure. We give thanks and give gifts, and receive them as well. Many people drink, watch football, rest, etc. It’s surely a special time of year for many people.

This put me on a train of thought about a book I’d read recently, Sway: The Irresistable Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman.

I won’t get into the stress levels, suicide rates and expectations people have through the holidays, but instead focus on the dichotomy of how giving and receiving pleasure are in competition with each other, unlike, for example, the multi-tasking of walking, listening to your iPod, texting and chewing gum.

Brafman p. 141

“Unlike, say, the parts of the brain that control movement and speech, the pleasure center and the altruism center cannot both function at the same time: either one or the other is in control.”

This reminds me of something I’d heard several years back about relationships, that by 18 months in, one partner tends to become the care-taker/giver and the other one the receiver. At the time, I’d thought of that as symptom of people developing or falling into roles, something done more out of habit and balance than on a physiological level.

I digress. But Sway continues:

Brafman(s) p. 142

“We can approach a task either altruistically or from a self-interested perspective…it doesn’t take much to fuel the altruism center: all you need is the sense that you’re helping someone or making a positive impact.”

Hence our warm feelings of gift-giving. But…

Brafman(s) p. 144

“It turns out that when the pleasure and altruism centers go head to head, the pleasure center seems to have the ability to hijack the altruism center.”

And, what sort of dopamine-producing pleasure could cause such a stir in the brain? Why, monetary rewards, which for our purposes here, relating to the holidays, I will call, “Year End Bonuses.”

Brafman(s) p. 148

“Now, the problem isn’t with the rewards, per se. It’s only when you dangle the possibility of a reward ahead of time- creating a quid pro quo situation- that these destructive affects arise…The prospect of a reward excites the pleasure center even more than the attainment of the reward itself…It’s that anticipation factor that drives the addictive behavior and suppresses the altruism center.”

I can think of countless situations where this could manifest- from donating to your local NPR station and receiving gifts in return, to a boss dangling a holiday performance-based bonus to overachieving employees, to the Homer-Simpson-like Dad who bets his last paycheck of the year at the races under the guise of winning more for gifts.

This also explains the roller-coaster highs and lows I experience at year-end. If only Santa Claus were real, he’d be the stable one over the holidays, focusing only on altruism, and avoiding the hijacking high of dopamine and the low that follows.

Ah, the holidays. It truly is better to give than to receive.

So I recently had the privilege of sitting in on an educational session at CDRP concerning the relationship between food/diet and mood and mental performance in recovery. It covered various processes and brain/blood chemistry, with a specific focus on how we can organize our diet in recovery in order to replenish critical neurotransmitters which are depleted by drug and alcohol abuse (I got jokingly called the “class chemist,” which I find hilarious since I hated chemistry throughout my education. But now, it heavily concerns me. Things change).

Just a quick review of three neurochemicals (protein-based, so from foods) that are  heavily hit by prolonged drug and alcohol abuse, their functions and potential consequences:

-Dopamine: responsible for muscle movement, attention span and motivation. Depletion for lead to lessened attn. span, a total lack of motivation and tremors which, if serious enough, can lead to granmall seizures.

-Neuronephrine: responsible for alertness and mood. Depletion leads to depression, lessened “staying power” or alertness and positive feelings, and fatigue (neuronephrine is a precursor to adrenaline, so less of this chemical leads to less adrenaline).

-Seratonin: responsible for regulating sleep, appetite, pain threshold and sensory processing. Depletion can lead to chronic insomnia, eating disorders and difficult processing sensory information (including hallucinations).

HOWEVER, in recovery, we can organize what and when we eat, so as to maximize the replenishing of these vital chemicals.

Given that these are protein-based chemicals, they come from specific foods. But to complicate the picture, proteins compete for absorption from the blood into the brain. In order for a specific protein to enter the brain, it needs to be the most plentiful in the blood and another can enter only when it trumps the originally abundant protein.

Dopamine and neuronephrine spawn from a protein called tyrazene, and it is very abundant. Protein also leads to increase alertness, etc, so these foods should be eaten during the day so as to avoid drowsiness.

Seratonin on the other hand develops from a protein called triptophane, which is quite scare. Therefore, in order for it to be absorbed into the brain, other proteins need to be scare in the blood. To do this, we should eat starchy foods with complex carbohydrates. As a consequence, the body releases insulin which forces all other proteins other than triptophane into muscle tissue, leaving it as the most abundant protein at that time. However, this protein leads to relaxation and drowsiness, so we should eat heavy carbs and no other proteins at night, which is a huge contrast to how most Westerners organize their diet.

So, here are some suggestions for when to eat certain types of foods so as to maximize the production of these vital neurochemicals (Reminder: this is for people in recovery. “Normies” should not necessarily organize their eating in this way as their brain chemistry is different):

Dopamine/neuronephrine (tyrazene): fish (tuna, salmon, sardines), chicken (breast, no skin, and baked or broiled), lean beef, shell fish, milk (not whole), low/non-fat yogurt, tofu, beans, lentils, nuts, turkey To be eaten during the daytime hours. Do not fry these foods or eaten with fats as these proteins are not high-fat soluable.

Seratonin (triptophane): unripe bananas, turkey, whole milk, carb-rich, low-protein meals (pastas, rices, potatoes and other starches) To be eaten in the evening/night time.

Avoidance foods: individuals in recovery can experience headaches, agitation, anxiety and higher blood pressure upon consuming these foods as they are the raw material for adrenaline.

-Black licorice, aged cheeses (cheddar), raisins, soy sauce, avocados, etc.

So, individuals in recovery should reduce their fat intake and increase their consumption of high-quality proteins and complex carbohydrates. Proteins should be eaten during the daytime hours while high-carb. and starchy foods should be saved for the evening/night.

What is the role of serotonin in causing aggression? – evaluate studies

• Cases 1995- serotonin in normal levels inhibits neuronal firing, low levels particularly in the prefrontal cortex makes individuals less able to control their impulsive and aggressive responses.
• Brown et al 1982- major metabolite (waste product) of serotonin tends to be low in the cerebrospinal fluid in impulsive and aggressive people.
• Mann et al 1990- gave drug dexfenfluramine known to deplete serotonin levels and in a questionnaire found in males hostility and aggression had increased after treatment with the drug.

Evaluation:

• Arora and Meltzer 1989- not caused by low levels of serotonin but low serotonin metabolism leading to increased numbers of receptors, they found a relationship between violent suicide and elevated serotonin receptor density.
• Mann et al 1996- amongst suicide victims those with increased numbers of pre-frontal cortex serotonin receptors had chosen more violent methods of suicide.
• Badawy 2006­- explains link between alcohol and aggression as acute alcohol intake causes a major disturbance in the metabolism of brain serotonin, leading to depleted serotonin levels, possibly leading to violence.
• Ferrari et al 2003- rats allowed fighting at same time every day for 10 days, on 11^th day not allowed to fight but in anticipation of imminent fight lead to decreased serotonin levels, experience has changed the brain chemistry consistent with the onset of aggressive behaviour.
• Davidson et al 2000- serotonin is not the only influence on behaviour, research on animals suggests serotonin inhibits aggressive tendencies; tame domestic pets have much higher levels of serotonin than rats.
• Raleigh et al 1991- vervet monkeys fed diets high in tryptophan (increases serotonin levels) exhibited decrease aggression. Low tryptophan diets led to increased aggressive behaviour.
• Popova 1991- in animals bred of domestication and docile temperaments there is an increase over generations in concentrations of serotonin in the brains.
• Bond 2005- antidepressant drugs that elevate serotonin levels reduce irritability and impulsive aggression.

What is the role of dopamine in causing aggression? – evaluate studies

• Lavine 1997- increases in dopamine activity is associated with increases in aggressive behaviour.
• Buitelaar 2003- dopamine antagonists (reduce dopamine activity in the brain) has been successfully used to reduce aggressive behaviour in violent delinquents.
• Couppis et al 2008- dopamine production plays a reinforcing role in aggression, people carry out aggressive acts in order to increase their dopamine levels like the way stimuli like food, sex and recreational drugs do.

Evaluation:

• Ferrari et al 2003- rats allowed fighting at same time every day for 10 days, on 11^th day not allowed to fight but in anticipation of imminent fight lead to increased dopamine levels, experience has changed the brain chemistry consistent with the onset of aggressive behaviour.
• Couppis et al 2008 – lack of dopamine leads to not being able to move due to dopamine’s role in coordination of movement so it is difficult to explain any drop in aggressive behaviour as if could be due to lack of motivation to be aggressive or  difficulty moving hence difficulty in responding aggressively.

What is the role of testosterone in causing aggression? – evaluate studies

• Males produce testosterone in the testes, women produce less by converting dehydropiandrosterone (DHEA) in adrenal glands.
• Testosterone marks aggressive behaviour more likely to be expressed.
• Archer 1991- meta analysis of 5 studies  found low positive correlation between aggression and correlation
• Book et al 2001- meta analysis of 45 studies found correlations of 0.14
• Olweus et al 1980, 1988- very slight increase of testosterone in institutionalized delinquent boys than that of non-delinquent male students.
• Kouri et al 1995- gave men either dose of testosterone or placebo. Told pushing a button reduces the amount of money given to another person and told somebody was doing the same to them. Those with the extra testosterone pushed the button more times.
• Pope et al 2000- carried out same experiment as Kouri et al but gave the testosterone of a six week period, and also found the same results.
• Bone et al 2006- testosterone is more often to linked to dominance, which can sometimes lead to aggression, the testosterone itself doesn’t lead straight to aggression.

Evaluation

• Bain et al 1987- found no difference between testosterone levels between men who had been charged with violent crimes and men who had been charged with non-violent crimes.
• Kreuz and Rose 1972- no different between 21 young prisoners who had been classified as fighting or non-fighting while in prison. However 10 with histories of violent crime in adolescence had higher levels of testosterone than those without violent histories.
• Zitzmann 2006 – only really relevant to strength athletes who supplement excessively high levels. In most cases testosterone is positive, a lack of testosterone can lead to depressive disorders.
• Barrett-Connor et al 1999 –found depression levels increase with age due to decreasing levels of testosterone.
• McNicholas et al 2003- increase in positivity corresponds with testosterone replacement therapy.

What is the role of cortisol in causing aggression? – evaluate studies

• Van Goozen et al 2007- cortisol is part of the body’s reaction to stress. Lower levels of cortisol are associated with high levels of aggressive behaviour.
• Virkkunen 1985- low levels of cortisol in habitually violent offenders.
• Tennes and Kreye 1985- low levels of cortisol in aggressive school children.
• Having low ANS arousal (and therefore low leves of cortisol) is unpleasant so aggressive behaviour is an attempt to cause raise and raise these levels.
• Cortisol plays a mediating role by inhibiting the likelihood of aggressive behaviour.
• Popma et al 2006- interaction between cortisol and testosterone in relation to over aggression. Positive relationship between testosterone and overt aggression in participants with low cortisol levels.

Evaluation

• Gerra et al 1997- lack of consistency in results of studies. Reported higher cortisol concentrations in aggressive participants.

I have often wondered if I am more adventurous than others. I recall how one time we went to a theme-park and I wanted to try all the thrilling rides but my friends were content with the mild ones. I also know that I tend to crave for adventure all the time. Be it in the form of thrilling amusement park rides like rollercoasters or extreme sports like bungee jumping (which I have yet to try) or simply the discovery of a new place. I could cite numerous instances when I have ventured out on adventures that others would label as reckless.

There was the time I explored Binondo all alone. There was that instance I travelled to Balayan, Batangas, a place I hardly knew, in the dead of the night with a sleepy van driver. There was that time I insisted that I want to try and I could complete an Auzie rapel. Then there was that latest foray into an unknown area in Pampanga to meet people I only knew from the internet. Even when I was a little kid, I was always the adventurous type constantly seeking new ways to introduce thrills in my life that no one would ever dare do.

Today I found out that this could be due to an abnormally long D4DR gene in my brain. D4DR is the gene that codes for the receptor of dopamine, a brain neurotransmiter (chemical signal) responsible for feelings of pleasure and well-being as well as increasing alertness. Satisfying a hunger is enough to release dopamine levels that would normally make a person feel satisfied and pleasurable. But persons with a longer D4DR gene would require higher levels of dopamine just to satisfy them. If the dopamine levels are not met, these people tend to be depressed, inert and moody. Interestingly, pain also increases dopamine levels.

D4DR Gene

Now could that also be the explanation why I like gory movies and why I relish so much the thought of pain? I had no qualms pricking my finger and letting blood ooze from them for our physio experiments. I constantly want to donate blood to charity. I am never afraid of any cut or bruise or painful accident. In fact, I seem to relish them.

Caution though, dopamine is also responsible for a number of personality traits and psychiatric disorders. Not that I am saying I am insane, but I must be careful.

Now, of course, there are drugs that can stimulate the brain to produce more dopamine and as such improve the moods of those requiring higher dopamine levels. Coccaine is one of them. It is even presumed that those with mood instabilities caused by low dopamine levels are “self-premedicating” on the drug. Although, hard core drug abusers are more often a result of the environment conditions than the actual need for the drug.

However, most adventurers also take a huge amount of time planning out their adventures. Most adventurers, like mountain climbers, have carefully laid out plans. But then again, there are more adventures that one could say are made at a whim. Also, in my personal experience, planning for an upcoming adventure already increases the excitement in me. Of course, there are moments of apprehension but they are easily squashed and by-passed. So long as the thrill of the upcoming adventure remains, every day that it draws near and every carefully laid out plan made in preparation for it adds to the thrill it presents. In that case, dopamine levels remain to be the ones to blame for such adventurous spirits.

The D4DR Gene

“D4DR is a human gene, located on chromosome 11. It is (so far) one of the only genes proven to be directly linked to a human personality trait. When the D4DR gene is mutated or elongated, studies have shown that the individual may be more interested in danger, excitement and thrill seeking.”

~ Wikipedia

Photographer Dustin Humphrey For Insight / Dopamine Editorial Campaign

There is never really much concept or creativity in surfing industry photo ads, these are amazing, read on for more.

According to new research from UCL Institute of Neurology, the release of the brain chemical dopamine influences how people make choices by affecting expectations of pleasure.

The study, which was recently published in Current Biology, confirms that dopamine not only plays an important role in how people make more complex decisions, but also how human expectations are formed. The study offers new insight into how pleasure expectation can go awry, such as with drug and alcohol addiction.

“Humans make much more complex decisions than other animals, such as which job to take or whether to start a family,” said the lead author of the study.  “We wanted to understand the role of dopamine in making these types of decisions.”

The role of the neurotransmitter dopamine in reward-seeking behavior is well understood through animal studies; however, its role in human behavior is much less understood. The results from the study indicate that when faced with having to consider options when making real-life decisions, dopamine (a drug known to enhance dopamine function was administered to a group of people deciding on where to vacation) did play a role in “signaling the expected pleasure from those possible future events.” (Science Daily). This signal is what humans use to make decisions.

It’s the dopamine-seeking me just cycling through a variable reinforcement schedule.

an article posted by Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D.

100 Things You Should Know About People: #8 — Dopamine Makes You Addicted To Seeking Information

Do you ever feel like you are addicted to email or twitter or texting? Do you find it impossible to ignore your email if you see that there are messages in your inbox? Have you ever gone to Google to look up some information and 30 minutes later you realize that you’ve been reading and linking, and searching around for a long time, and you are now searching for something totally different than before? These are all examples of your dopamine system at work.

Enter dopamine – Neuro scientists have been studying what they call the dopamine system for a while. Dopamine was “discovered” in 1958 by Arvid Carlsson and Nils-Ake Hillarp at the National Heart Institute of Sweden. Dopamine is created in various parts of the brain and is critical in all sorts of brain functions, including thinking, moving, sleeping, mood, attention, and motivation, seeking and reward.

The myth — You may have heard that dopamine controls the “pleasure” systems of the brain: that dopamine makes you feel enjoyment, pleasure, and therefore motivates you to seek out certain behaviors, such as food, sex, and drugs.

It’s all about seeking — The latest research, though is changing this view. Instead of dopamine causing us to experience pleasure, the latest research shows that dopamine causes seeking behavior. Dopamine causes us to want, desire, seek out, and search. It increases our general level of arousal and our goal-directed behavior. (From an evolutionary stand-point this is critical. The dopamine seeking system keeps us motivated to move through our world, learn, and survive). It’s not just about physical needs such as food, or sex, but also about abstract concepts. Dopamine makes us curious about ideas and fuels our searching for information. The latest research shows that it is the opoid system (separate from dopamine) that makes us feel pleasure.

Wanting vs. liking – According to Kent Berridge, these two systems, the “wanting” (dopamine) and the “liking” (opoid) are complementary. The wanting system propels us to action and the liking system makes us feel satisfied and therefore pause our seeking. If our seeking isn’t turned off at least for a little while, then we start to run in an endless loop. The latest research shows that the dopamine system is stronger than the opoid system. We seek more than we are satisfied (back to evolution… seeking is more likely to keep us alive than sitting around in a satisfied stupor).

A dopamine induced loop – With the internet, twitter, and texting we now have almost instant gratification of our desire to seek. Want to talk to someone right away? Send a text and they respond in a few seconds. Want to look up some information? Just type it into google. What to see what your friends are up to? Go to twitter or facebook. We get into a dopamine induced loop… dopamine starts us seeking, then we get rewarded for the seeking which makes us seek more. It becomes harder and harder to stop looking at email, stop texting, stop checking our cell phones to see if we have a message or a new text.

Anticipation is better than getting — Brain scan research shows that our brains show more stimulation and activity when we ANTICIPATE a reward than when we get one. Research on rats shows that if you destroy dopamine neurons, rats can walk, chew, and swallow, but will starve to death even when food is right next to them. They have lost the desire to go get the food.

More, more, more – Although wanting and liking are related, research also shows that the dopamine system doesn’t have satiety built in. It is possible for the dopamine system to keep saying “more more more”,  seeking even when we have found the information. During that google exploration we know that we have the answer to the question we originally asked, and yet we find ourselves looking for more information and more and more.

Unpredictable is the key — Dopamine is also stimulated by unpredictability. When something happens that is not exactly predictable, that stimulates the dopamine system. Think about these electronic gadgets and devices. Our emails and twitters and texts show up, but we don’t know exactly when they will or who they will be from. It’s unpredictable. This is exactly what stimulates the dopamine system. It’s the same system at work for gambling and slot machines. (For those of you reading this who are “old school” psychologists, you may remember “variable reinforcement schedules”. Dopamine is involved in variable reinforcement schedules. This is why these are so powerful).

When you hear the “ding” that you have a text – The dopamine system is especially sensitive to “cues” that a reward is coming. If there is a small, specific cue that signifies that something is going to happen, that sets off our dopamine system. So when there is a sound when a text message or email arrives, or a visual cue, that enhances the addictive effect (for the psychologists out there: remember Pavlov).

The old adage says we learn from our mistakes.

Recent studies suggest otherwise.

“Success has a much greater influence on the brain than failure,” says Massachusetts Institute of Technology neuroscientist Earl Miller, who led the research.  In learning trials with monkeys, even after an animal had mastered a task, one mistake would drop its performance level in the next trial to no better than chance.

On the other hand the monkey’s performance tended to improve following a successful attempt.  The theory is that the surge of dopamine resulting from a perceived success creates pleasure feeling. The theory is this signals brain cells to keep doing whatever they did that created the successful feeling.

Long lines at Starbucks, no seats in Van Pelt, no vacant rooms in Huntsman: these are all signs that midterm season here at Penn is in full swing. Running from class to work to meetings to Van Pelt can become overwhelming at times. Knowing that a single exam will constitute at least thirty percent of one’s final grade can create for some stressful situations. Many students study for a single exam for several days, while others try to cram in half a semester’s reading into one long, highly caffeinated night. Yet there is still another group of students who feel that they cannot study without any help. These students don’t seek out aid in TA’s or fellow students, but rather in narcotics such as Adderall and Ritalin.

Students seek out these illegal prescription drugs to be able to study harder and longer. Adderall and Ritalin are legally used to treat attention-deficit disorder, or ADHD, but on college campuses are more commonly being used as study-aids with prices ranging from $5 to $20 per pill. They have become the drugs of choice since they increase cognitive function and allow students to study for hours with full concentration.

Many students rather take these pills instead of drinking coffee since they don’t make students feel as jittery as coffee. Obtaining these “study drugs” has become easier than most would assume. They are being sold in dormitories, cafeterias, libraries, etc. You may wonder how students are even getting these pills since they are prescription drugs. Many buy them from other students who actually have ADD, but receive many more pills under their prescription than necessary, while other, more cunning students, research the symptoms of ADHD and relay these symptoms to a doctor who is willing to prescribe them the drug of their choice.

Although Adderall and Ritalin seem like miracle drugs that allow for highly-stressed students to study longer, they are amphetamine-based, which means they are addictive. They alter chemicals in the brain, such as dopamine, which makes studying seem rewarding, increase blood pressure, blood glucose and heart rate, while constricting blood vessels. They suppress appetite and keep students awake for hours even when their bodies desperately long for sleep.

I know several students on campus who take these drugs because they feel that without them they won’t be capable to perform at the high standards they need to, to “beat the curve” and get that A. It has destructive patterns, and I’ve seen it consume people’s lives. This makes me question whether the University is putting too much pressure on students to do well, or if students are putting too much pressure on themselves to be better than their peers. Whichever it may be, using these drugs will definitely give you more than you bargain for.

By Deepak Chopra

Jeremiah Sullivan

How would you feel if you were told you had won $1 million? What if you only had a month to live? Information has the power to make you ecstatic or depressed in an instant. Deepak Chopra shows you how to gain control over the information and set your body free.

Why does bad news make us sad? Why does getting a raise make us want to celebrate? Not many people have thought about these questions. They seem too simple, yet in a way they are deeply mysterious.

In fact, the right answer can set your body free, while the wrong answer can prove to be an inescapable trap.

Right now, brain science can tell us part of the story. When someone tells you a piece of bad news (“Your bank account has been cleared out”), a different style of brain chemistry is activated from when you hear good news (“Congratulations, you got the job”). It isn’t possible to have an emotion of any kind without various neurotransmitters and other so-called messenger molecules that turn words into brain activity.

Brain researchers have been so excited by this discovery—that the brain “lights up” with every new experience—that only a few people have said: “Wait, you didn’t hit on the answer. You made the mystery harder to solve.”

And here’s why: How did mere words turn into chemicals? Information streams into your body every second. Not just “You got the job” or “Your bank account is empty,” but all the sights and sounds of the world. You cannot see or hear anything without the brain being activated at the chemical and electrical levels. Yet no one has the faintest idea how that magical transformation occurs. There’s enormous potential here for both good and bad. One person who gets bad news becomes devastatingly depressed while another quickly bounces back. One person becomes manic with good news and starts acting with irrational exuberance (think of the famous line from the movie Titanic: “I’m king of the world!”) while another person takes good news in stride.

Clearly you would be much better off if you had some control over the beneficial information that could transform your brain into a powerful resource for your own growth.

3 breakthroughs that can transform your life

5 mood-boosting foods, 1 complete meal

Kimberly Caruba, beat blogger

As night comes earlier, days start to look gloomier, and the weather gets wetter it’s hard not to feel your mood go down with the falling temperature. To combat these nasty side effects of the fall and winter seasons, five foods readily available to the average college student may help to boost your mood and make you feel good, even if the weather isn’t so cheerful.

1. Whole Grain Bread – Better than its paler counterparts, whole grain bread contains amino acids that are essential to making sure your brain functions properly. Not only are amino acids important for a healthy brain and proper transmission of messages, but they are also necessary for developing neurotransmitters which control a person’s mood and depression.

2. Bananas – The cheerful color on this fruits peel has a strong correlation to an individual’s mood. Bananas contain magnesium, a lack of which in a person’s diet can wreak havoc on one’s mood. Eating bananas is an easy way to ensure that your magnesium levels do not get out of whack.

3. Milk – This delicious drink contains calcium and tryptophan, which work together to relax and reinvigorate a person’s body. Calcium has the ability to reduce a person’s anxiety and stress level, while tryptophan aids your body’s production of serotonin, which is responsible for a person’s mood. The more serotonin you have, the happier you are going to be. Drinking milk is especially important for those of us that like to sleep in. While you sleep, your body consumes serotonin, and over-sleeping can result in the use of too much serotonin, leaving you deprived of the chemical for your day-to-day activities. Less serotonin during the day means a lower mood. Therefore, drinking milk is a stress reliever and a mood booster all in one!

4. Poultry – These foods are great to consume when you’re feeling overwhelmed and down in the dumps. Poultry contains an important amino acid called tyrosine which is responsible for increasing two neurotransmitters essential to a person’s mood: dopamine and norepinephrine. Psychological studies have shown that dopamine and norepinephrine have strong links to depression. They also play a big part in a person’s reaction time, and level of motivation. Next time you’re feeling groggy and cranky, eat some poultry; it will reduce your stress and increase your energy level.

5. Chocolate – As girls are already well aware, when feeling sad, distraught, or even stressed, chocolate is a never-fail pick-me-upper. Chocolate contains phenylethylamine, which causes the brain to produce serotonin, which, as we have already stated, boosts a person’s mood. Contrary to what people believe, chocolate won’t cause any break-outs, so next time you’re feeling blue, don’t hesitate to reach for that chocolate bar!

Remember these five foods the next time you’re feeling glum, and if you really want a mood booster, eat them all at once! Make yourself a chicken sandwich with whole grain bread, drink a glass of milk, have a banana on the side and a little bar of chocolate for dessert! It’s balanced, and good for your mood too.

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Kimberly Caruba is a freshman broadcast journalism major. Caruba also writes for The Student Voice, volunteers at WAER radio, and is a part of Citrus TV. She will break the “Mental Block” every Thursday with tips on how to improve your mental health, friendships, and relieve stress.

       Biological models of sex tend to view love as a mammalian drive, much like hunger or thirst.

        Helen Fisher, a leading expert in the topic of love, divides the experience of love into three partly overlapping stages: lust, attraction, and attachment. Lust exposes people to others; romantic attraction encourages people to focus their energy on mating; and attachment involves tolerating the spouse (or indeed the child) long enough to rear a child into infancy. Lust is the initial passionate sexual desire that promotes mating, and involves the increased release of chemicals such as testosterone and estrogen.

      

       These effects rarely last more than a few weeks or months. Attraction is the more individualized and romantic desire for a specific candidate for mating, which develops out of lust as commitment to an individual mate forms. Recent studies in neuroscience have indicated that as people fall in love, the brain consistently releases a certain set of chemicals, including pheromones, dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin, which act in a manner similar to amphetamines, stimulating the brain’s pleasure center and leading to side effects such as increased heart rate, loss of appetite and sleep, and an intense feeling of excitement.

       Research has indicated that this stage generally lasts from one and a half to three years.

        Since the lust and attraction stages are both considered temporary, a third stage is needed to account for long-term relationships. Attachment is the bonding that promotes relationships lasting for many years and even decades. Attachment is generally based on commitments such as marriage and children, or on mutual friendship based on things like shared interests. It has been linked to higher levels of the chemicals oxytocin and vasopressin to a greater degree than short-term relationships have. Enzo Emanuele and coworkers reported the protein molecule known as the nerve growth factor (NGF) has high levels when people first fall in love, but these return to previous levels after one year.

There is multitasking and there multitasking!  The former is what I do throughout the day, balancing various duties that must be done, website updates, reference assistance, library instruction, resource evaluation, etc.  I can’t do all of my duties every day, that would be impossible.  So I try to focus on specific ones and occasionally I get pulled away to attend to something unplanned such as a database bill that needs to be paid, or answer a phone call by a vendor.  The latter form of multitasking I am referring to is the dangerous kind.  It’s the kind that will pull me in several different directions, or as some have called “task switching.”  It’s checking email every few minutes or updates on my favorite news website when I am working on updating EBSCO AtoZ records or creating a LibGuide.  It’s having my phone attached to me all day buzzing me about appointments coming up, or text messages from friends, and phone calls from anyone and everyone.  It’s the kind of thing that can completely destroy my agenda for a week, month, or year if I don’t keep it in check.  I read a fascinating blog post today by a neuroscientist who suggests that multitasking and our attachment to our smart phone and other forms of technology has much to do with the brain’s craving for novelty.  He says that dopamine is more of a “gimme more” neurotransmitter than it is a “feel good” neurotransmitter like many believe.  It is like an addictive drug that keeps us coming back for more.  Furthermore, he states that like drug cravings, we can lessen that impulse to keep going back to these various stimuli by giving ourselves little vacations from them, thus allowing us to go back to living a “normal life.”  I often find myself needing to do this.  I will shut down Outlook for a good portion of the day to avoid distractions.  Or I may shut my cell phone off while at home and keep the computer off for several evenings so that I can simply “be home” and enjoy it.  I highly recommend reading the article for further information.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/russell-poldrack/multitasking-the-brain-se_b_334674.html

But I would like to reflect for a moment on attractions to Web 2.0 technologies.  Having jumped headlong into Library 2.0 implementation for my library in the past year, I have found myself constantly experimenting with different platforms.  I find that I get excited about something different and use it extensively, then I move onto something else.  For me, it has become somewhat of a drug.  Some technologies have stuck while some I have let fall by the wayside.  I think what is important is to stay focused on a set of goals and objective and apply these tools as a means to accomplish these goals and not a means in themselves. I am very interested in hearing from other librarians, especially Web 2.0 junkies like myself, who may have some thoughts on this topic.

1. Moving to the mid-west from the east coast several years back led to some pretty significant culture shock. But as Christopher Hitchens points out in his newest piece that outlines what he has learned from talking to religious zealots most fundamentalists are kind and tolerable people.

2. Dopamine seems to be the neurological buzzword of the “noughties” and with good reason. Natalie Angier of the Times breaks it down with her piece on rethinking dopamine’s function in the brain. BONUS: an additional post by Jona “the neuroscientist” Lehrer on how dopamine helps with abstract thinking.

3. Anti-vaxxers are a particularly upsetting bunch of hysterical polemics whose continued affront to science demonstrates why defending science isn’t always easy but is always necessary.

4. One of the most fascinating developments in the “local food” movement is the rise of urban agriculture. The prospect of Detroit going under cultivation (which it slowly, but surely, is) brings to mind images of old Ford dealerships being surrounded by fields of rutabaga and kale (also, who eats rutabaga?), while cows munch their way down main street.

5. I always took comfort in knowing that the world was going to end in 2012. Now Mayan researchers prove that I don’t even have that safety blanket.

While we might be able to explain some human behavior with intrinsic motivation, the source of this motivation is difficult to pinpoint. The New York Times reported several studies focusing on the effects of dopamine, revealing that dopamine should no longer be thought of “as our little Bacchus in the brain.” Until recently, dopamine was thought of as a provider of “pleasure and reward.”

In one study, mice with significantly less dopamine seemed satisfied to lounge around as their bodies withered away, choosing death over the hardship of staggering a few inches to the food dish. These same mice acted normal when nibbles of food were brought to them—chewing, swallowing, even “wriggling [their] nose in apparent rodent satisfaction.”

These new studies on dopamine suggest it’s more about survival—“drive and motivation” as the New York Times writes—than some kind of adrenaline counterpart. If this is the case, then social psychologists can join up with behavioral geneticists to talk about motivation. We know, for example, of the social origins of motivation, but it’s quite another approach to suggest that even the motivation for getting out of bed has origins in the brain. The next step is to determine how dopamine is affected by social life.