Dopamine and desire

In this episode we talk about the role of dopamine with desire and how it relates to focus.Dopamine was thought of as the pleasure molecule but actually it gets released when we receive the unexpected. So, when you are told you can go home at 5pm instead of at 6pm and you feel that rush of excitement, it's not because you have been let go home early, it's because it was unexpected.How do we know this to be the case? Well how many of you have been let go an hour early and then after a few times of this happening you no longer feel the same excitement, in fact you can feel disappointment because you haven't been let go at 4:30pm.Dopamine is released when we get a reward but when that reward becomes expected it no longer get's released. This is why we need to make the doing the reward, because when dopamine is released it helps with focus.We will also talk about how dopamine is released in the anticipation of the reward and how rewards for work can actually make you less motivated in the future.Happy listeningJonny