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Change, Technically · August 5 · 40 min

Dopamine, misunderstood

Are we addicted to talking about dopamine? In this episode, we tackle dopamine hype with real science: what dopamine is doing in the brain, how we study it, and how it's been misunderstood. ---- SHOW NOTES two articles tackling dopamine nation: https://awjuliani.medium.com/beyond-dopamine-nation-towards-a-fuller-picture-of-addiction-and-recovery-97b37e17235e https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/13/opinion/addiction-dopamine-brain-chemistry.html?unlocked_article_code=1.yVA.uvbi.PVfFQMzMudvb&smid=url-share other great takes on this topic: mark humphries "the crimes against dopamine" https://medium.com/the-spike/the-crimes-against-dopamine-b82b082d5f3d https://youtu.be/HZRGWPLeMIg?si=Ponb7AagEa4QN2BY things that cause dopamine release, as studied with PET: video games https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9607763/ music https://www.nature.com/articles/nn.2726 yes, cocaine https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9331351/ (relatedly, nora volkow's work: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18617195/) not just reward in isolation https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811922009521 more papers that fueled the sciency talk here: https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.neuro.28.061604.135722 https://www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.1513619112 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1014269108 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32974872/ songs covered in the episode: "dopamine" by robyn https://youtu.be/vitil9qMN6A?si=mMu1FliQP4-6QSIE "dopamine" by madelline https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Upy4rB8V3T4 ---- Learn more about Ashley: https://ashleyjuavinett.com/ https://mastodon.social/@analog_ashley ashleyjuavinett.bsky.social Learn more about Cat: https://www.drcathicks.com/ https://mastodon.social/@grimalkina grimalkina.bsky.social

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show notes

Are we addicted to talking about dopamine? In this episode, we tackle dopamine hype with real science: what dopamine is doing in the brain, how we study it, and how it's been misunderstood.

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SHOW NOTES

two articles tackling dopamine nation

other great takes on this topic

  • mark humphries "the crimes against dopamine" https://medium.com/the-spike/the-crimes-against-dopamine-b82b082d5f3d 
  • https://youtu.be/HZRGWPLeMIg?si=Ponb7AagEa4QN2BY 

things that cause dopamine release, as studied with PET:

more papers that fueled the sciency talk here: 

songs covered in the episode:

  • "dopamine" by robyn https://youtu.be/vitil9qMN6A?si=mMu1FliQP4-6QSIE 
  • "dopamine" by madelline https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Upy4rB8V3T4

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Learn more about Ashley:


Learn more about Cat:

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