Dopamine is known as the feel-good neurotransmitter—a chemical that ferries information between neurons. The brain releases it when we eat food that we crave or while we have sex, contributing to feelings of pleasure and satisfaction as part of the reward system. This important neurochemical boosts mood, motivation, and attention, and helps regulate movement, learning, and emotional responses. It is no exaggeration to say that dopamine makes us human.
How Dopamine Influences Behavior
In lab experiments, dopamine prompts a rat to press a lever for food again and again. The response is no different in humans; it’s the reason we partake in more than one helping of cake. This press-the-lever cycle applies to addiction as well. People with low levels of dopamine may be more prone to addiction; someone seeking pleasure via drugs or alcohol or food may need higher and higher levels of dopamine.
Dopamine causes you to want, desire, seek out, and search. It increases your general level of arousal and your goal-directed behavior. Dopamine makes you curious about ideas and fuels your search for information. Dopamine creates reward-seeking loops in the sense that people will repeat pleasurable behavior, from checking Instagram to taking drugs.
A person with high levels of dopamine, whether due to temperament or to a transient (perhaps chemically induced) state, can be described as a sensation seeker. The upside of sensation seeking is that people see potential stressors as challenges to be overcome rather than threats that might crush them. This mindset is a buffer against the stress of life. It increases their hardiness and resilience in the long term.
The release of dopamine creates a reward circuit in the brain. This circuit registers an intense experience, such as getting high, as "important" and creates lasting memories of it as pleasurable. In this way, dopamine changes the brain on a cellular level, commanding the brain to do it again.
Psychiatric and Neurodegenerative Disorders
Swedish pharmacologist and neuroscientist Arvid Carlsson won the Nobel Prize in 2000 for his research on dopamine, showing its importance in brain function. He helped show that the neurotransmitter is heavily involved in the motor system. When the brain fails to produce enough dopamine, one result can be the onset of Parkinson’s disease. The primary treatment for Parkinson’s disease, a drug called L-dopa, spurs the production of dopamine.
Dopamine has also been implicated in the development of schizophrenia and ADHD, although the brain systems underlying these conditions, as well as substance abuse disorder, are complex. The activity of the dopamine system depends on the state of one’s dopamine receptors, and in people with these conditions, the chemical interacts with other factors in ways that have yet to be explained.
Beginning in infant development, dopamine levels are critical, and mental disabilities can arise when dopamine is not present in sufficient quantities. Dopamine is implicated in genetic conditions like congenital hypothyroidism, and dopamine deficiency is implicated in other conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, depressive disorders, binge eating, addiction, and gambling.
Drugs currently used to treat ADHD increase the effectiveness of dopamine. This helps patients with ADHD focus and pay better attention to one thing at a time. Exactly how increased dopamine translates into better concentration and focus, however, is not yet fully understood.
In this neurodegenerative disorder, decline begins in the dopamine-producing cells in the brain where movement is coordinated. As these cells degrade, motor function is compromised, bringing on tremors, rigidity, bradykinesia, and/or slowed movement, along with noticeable changes in speech and gait.
How to Increase Dopamine
Researchers who study neurological and psychiatric disorders have long been interested in how dopamine works and how relatively high or low levels in the brain relate to behavioral challenges and disability.
There are ways to raise one's dopamine levels naturally. Basic self-care is the place to start; for example, a night of fitful sleep can reduce dopamine drastically.
Here are some tips to boost levels:
- Eat foods rich in tyrosine, including cheese, meats, fish, dairy, soy, seeds, nuts, beans, and lentils. While tyrosine supplements are available, consuming it through foods is preferred.
- Increase magnesium intake with foods such as seeds, nuts, soy, beans, and whole grains.
- Avoid processed foods and high-fat foods, and limit sugar and caffeine intake.
- Proper sleep hygiene is essential, as it fuels dopamine production.
- Exercise daily.
- Avoid stress, perhaps by adopting techniques such as meditation, visualization, and breathing exercises.
- Consider the use of natural nootropics, including L-Tyrosine and L-theanine.
