The Pleasure Seekers

By the 1980s, the circuit diagram of this reward center had been worked out. A whole
series of brain areas had been charted and the chemical transmitter that passed messages
around was known to be dopamine -- hence the reward center's alternative name, the
"dopamine system."

Everyone agreed on the center's function, too. It rewarded animals for doing things with
survival value -- eating or having sex, for example. In the years that followed, the reward
center and dopamine release were linked to every natural and unnatural pleasure
imaginable -- everything from the cotton-wool whoosh of heroin and the wham-bam of
orgasm to the gentler satisfaction of a rich meal or the thrill of winning money.
Its role is to make us feel good.

the electrodes were filling those patients and rats not with pleasure, but with a subtly
different feeling – desire, researchers mistook wanting for liking.
*
finding pleasure in a completely different brain area, the orbitofrontal cortex, just behind
the eyes.
*
that opioids, not dopamine, may be the real key to transmitting feelings of pleasure.
*

The basic idea that pleasure is a reward for doing something that promotes survival
remains important, but pleasure is turning out to play a much wider role.

It seems to be involved in all types of decision making, from choosing food to solving
mathematical problems. Pleasure helps us plan our movements and allows our brains to
filter and sort the mass of smells, sights, sounds and other information that bombard our
senses. It may have been the origin of all our emotions. Perhaps even consciousness itself
evolved from the simple sensing of pleasure and displeasure.

And chemical analysis shows that, whatever your pleasure, dopamine fuels the circuit.
"Dopamine was the pleasure transmitter,"
So why did he and others begin to question the status quo?
*
Could the dopamine system be a desire circuit that mediates our feelings of wanting
something, rather than a pleasure center that supplies our feelings of liking?

*
But was it pleasure? The reports mentioned feelings of alertness, warmth and goodwill,
arousal. It sounded more like desire than pleasure.
Could the dopamine system be a desire circuit that mediates our feelings of wanting
something, rather than a pleasure center that supplies our feelings of liking?
"pleasure" is not quite the right term to attach to activity in the dopamine system.

the dopamine system itself doesn't produce feelings of pleasure,

*

"The dopamine system is about motivation and seeking. It gives a generalized desire or
urge, an eagerness to engage with the world."
*
the dopamine system is not about pleasure, but desire. Addicts always end up needing
more of their drug to keep the pleasure level steady. But they never say they develop a
greater "liking" for any drug -- they just "want" it more and more.
*

dopamine is primarily involved in activating both movement and thought. And while he
believes that its release can be directly pleasurable because it gives us a sense of power
and a sense of enjoyment in "getting going," the dopamine system seems more important
for helping us to make the behavioral choices that will help us achieve the goals it has
told us we desire.

So where do we actually feel pleasure? It's not just a trivial question. According to
Kelley, only by understanding the brain's pleasure and desire circuits fully are we likely
to make progress in understanding two of the biggest threats to public health in the
developed world: obesity and drug addiction.

One suggestion is that pleasure comes from a different group of brain chemicals.

Pleasurable drugs don't just activate the dopamine system, they also trigger the release of
endorphins and encephalins -- a family of chemicals known as the opioids, which include
drugs such as morphine and heroin. These chemicals all seem to activate a circuit deep
inside the brain that overlaps with the dopamine system. Could this opioid circuit be the
source of pleasure, while dopamine produces the related feeling of desire?

One clue that the opioids are involved in pleasure is their well-known effect on appetite.
Even before the brain's own opioids and their targets were found, neurobiologists knew
that heroin and morphine could bring on the munchies and seemed to enhance the
pleasure of eating.

More recently, naloxone, a chemical that blocks the action of opioids, has been found to
reduce people's enjoyment of food without reducing their feelings of hunger, making
things taste less pleasantly sweet, for example. What's more, Panksepp has found that
young rats that are distressed by being separated from their mothers, for example, release
opioids when they return, and can be calmed without their mother by opioid drugs. He
concluded that social pleasures, particularly the feelings of comfort and safety associated
with social bonding, are produced by opioids too. Opioids, then, seem to mediate
"liking."

So where are the opioid receptors in the brain? Some are sprinkled at either end of the old
reward center, which has led many researchers to argue that opioids merely complement
the action of dopamine.

More recently, however, Berridge and others, notably Kelley, have found that the opioid
receptors are not confined to the dopamine system, but are widespread in the brain.
Berridge believes what they have found is a distinct pleasure circuit, driven by opioids. It
overlaps considerably with the dopamine system, to the point where some cells take part
in both circuits. But its role and chemistry are quite different.

Early results seem to show that one of the most important sites for "liking" is the ventral
pallidum, a small region deep in the brain, near the dopamine system. Opioid injections
into this area seem to boost enjoyment of sweet tastes, while damaging it makes all
normal liking disappear -- as seen by the lack of pleased facial expressions in rats given
sugar.

"This is a prime candidate for coding liking," says Berridge. The ventral pallidum takes
in signals from the nucleus accumbens -- a central component of the dopamine system --
and passes them on to the cortex. He believes it could well be at the heart of our liking
response.

And if this brain structure is the heart of pleasure, then a team in Oxford may have
located its head. According to their research, pleasure is not created solely by deep brain
structures and opioid cells. Cells nearer the surface of the brain have a vital role, as well.
And astonishingly, it seems that each form of pleasure is linked with a unique subset of
these neurons. Some of the cells react to sweet food, others to eating fatty morsels, others
to monetary reward and so on.

The cells are all in a region of the forebrain called the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), so-
called because it lies behind the orbits of the eyes. The region has long been known to
have something to do with emotions. But the Oxford team, led by neuroscientist Edmund
Rolls, haS now put it in the hedonistic driving seat.

Rolls points out that pleasure, like other emotions, is a direct response to a sensory
stimulus. And one of the first brain regions to process sensory information is the OFC.
Signals such as taste, touch, smells and sounds travel first to the sensory cortex, and from
there go straight to the OFC. Visual information enters by a slightly less direct route.
From here the signal passes into the opioid and dopamine circuits.
When he scanned the brains of human subjects using fMRI (functional magnetic
resonance imaging), Rolls found that a nice or nasty smell, taste or touch is represented in
the sensory cortex simply as a magnitude -- strong brain activity for a strong smell and
weak brain activity for a faint one, for example. But by the time it has passed on to the
OFC, the strength of the fMRI signal now correlates with how nice or nasty people rate
the stimulus. As each sensory signal passes through the OFC, it is as if it becomes tinged
with a level of liking or disliking.

Crucially, Rolls and his colleagues found that activity in the OFC increased or decreased
in line with the level of pleasure people reported they felt after drinking, eating or sensing
a touch. Even abstract pleasures -- such as music, attractive faces and financial reward --
seem to correlate with activity in this region. And each form of pleasure is linked to a
unique group of neurons. Some may react to sweetness, others to fat, others to monetary
reward. All told, about 10 percent of the neurons in the OFC may be pleasure sensors.

Most pleasure sensors are probably in-built, Rolls suggests, encoded in our genes and
honed by evolution. But the OFC can learn others.
*
There's no innate circuit for monetary reward, he points out, but one could easily be built
through learning. Money could come to be associated with food rewards or comfort, and
become rewarding in its own right.

The OFC, says Rolls, also calculates when you should stop partaking in something
pleasurable, through an effect he calls sensory-specific satiety. After a while, any reward
loses its appeal. It's not clear what causes the effect, but it seems to be linked to a drop in
activity in the pleasure cells. He believes drugs wreak their havoc because they tap
directly into the opioid and dopamine circuits, bypassing the OFC, which might
otherwise put the brakes on by exerting some kind of satiety.

The ventral pallidum and OFC are central to the new view of pleasure, but other brain
regions may be involved, too. A team at the university of Iowa in Iowa City has
uncovered evidence that other parts of the brain's cortex become especially active during
pleasure, or at least when people recall situations that gave them pleasure. Working with
his colleagues Hanna Damasio, Daniel Tranel and Antoine Bechara, neuroscientist
Antonio Damasio used PET scans to show that the cingulate cortex and somatosensory
cortex light up in this way. Damasio thinks the observation points to a crucial distinction
that must be made between pleasure as an "emotion" and pleasure as a "feeling." He sees
emotions as physiological processes that guide behavior, whereas feelings only arise
when the brain experiences those physiological processes and reflects upon them.

According to Damasio's model, the emotion of pleasure may well involve the dopamine
and opiate circuits and OFC. But actually feeling pleasure requires a level of reflection
that can only be provided by these other brain regions. These, argues Damasio, enable us
to sense how the physiological process changes the body's state. And as such they come
from the parts of our brain that carry sensory maps or representations of our bodies -- the
cingulate cortex, somatosensory cortex and certain parts of the brainstem.
Having discovered pleasure centers all over the brain, researchers are now asking, what
are they for? And the answers they are finding suggest that pleasure exerts its influence
on all kinds of basic brain processes. Far from being a heady, purely human pursuit,
pleasure may be a very simple and evolutionarily ancient invention.

Pleasure probably emerged for one simple purpose -- to guide actions. At any one time,
an animal has all kinds of conflicting requirements: eating, drinking, staying safe, mating,
getting warm. And each is producing a motivation to do something about it. "There must
exist in the brain a common currency that allows motivations to talk to one another," says
Michel Cabanac from the department of physiology at Laval University in Montreal,
Canada. "If there was not such a currency, it would be impossible to rank priorities."

Cabanac carried out a series of experiments trying to find out whether pleasure is what
allows us to prioritize our actions and carry them out in the most efficient way. He
compared all kinds of motivations: money, pain, comfort, palatability and so on.

"In all cases, pleasure was indeed the common currency that allowed the motivations to
talk to one another," he says.

In one experiment, Cabanac asked people to perform a climbing task on a treadmill. The
subjects had control of its speed or slope, and so could decide how to complete the task --
climb fast and finish quickly, or climb more slowly for longer. The way they made the
decision was based on pleasure, Cabanac says. They weighed up the discomfort in their
limbs and chest with the pleasure they would gain by completing the task.

The same happens when we choose what food to buy. People strike a balance between the
displeasure of spending money and the pleasure of eating palatable foods. "If you
combine the price with palatability, you realize at each instant people make decisions out
of the algebraic sum of hating to spend money, with loving to get good foods."

We use pleasure to make all kinds of decisions, says Cabanac -- solving a mathematical
problem, forming grammatical phrases, making ethical choices, gambling. By showing
people multiple-choice answers to all kinds of questions or problems, and asking them to
rate how much pleasure they felt reading each, he found that their ratings matched well
with the answers they subsequently chose. All decisions are made to maximize pleasure,
he says. We call it "gut instinct," but in reality it is seeking pleasure.

His ideas are backed up by the case of Phineas Gage, a famous 19th-century patient who
suffered brain damage to his frontal lobes, leaving him unable to feel any emotion.
Revealingly, he was also unable to make decisions.

Clearly, though, humans are not slaves to instant gratification. We are able to override the
desire for immediate pleasure. But even this decision can be viewed as one that
ultimately maximizes pleasure, because only by deferring gratification can we gain the
chance of long-term rewards.
The fundamental role pleasure plays in decision making is leading some researchers to
see it as a basic biological process that evolved long before humans did. Cabanac
believes it arose somewhere between amphibians and reptiles, while Damasio thinks even
flies and mollusks can have pleasure, if not the feelings associated with them.

"Pleasure and pain were the earliest forms of emotion to evolve," says Panksepp. Our rich
inner world of thoughts and feelings, and conscious awareness itself, may all trace back
to a simple sense of pleasure and displeasure.

Unfortunately for the hedonists among us, the role that pleasure has in guiding our
behavior seems to produce a natural limit. Pleasure, by definition, cannot be long-lasting.
It must switch off so that we can move on to the next task.

By similar argument, we'll never achieve true happiness through the pursuit of pleasure,
says Cabanac, because we can never be truly comfortable while we are in a pleasurable
state. If we're experiencing pleasure it's because we must need something. Take
temperature. Only if we're too hot or cold will we be able to experience the pleasure of a
cold drink or hot bath. Once our temperature has stabilized, we're indifferent to either
experience. If we are in no danger or need of any kind, we're in a comfortable but
indifferent state.

"Pleasure -- sensory pleasure -- is not happiness, it is joy," says Cabanac. "The state of
indifference is what I call happiness."

Opiates for pain relief, for tranquilization, and for pleasure

During the nineteenth century, many highly reputable addicts-whose addiction arose
during the medicinal use of opiates-insisted that they had never in their lives experienced
a moment's pleasure from opiates; they took their drug solely to forestall withdrawal
distress and the unpleasant "post-addiction syndrome," to be described below. Today's
addicts almost all concede that they get a highly enjoyable bang or rush from their heroin
injections. They may, however, be mistaken. For them as for nonaddicts, the rush may be
merely an abdominal sensation of warmth. For the addicts, however, the sensation may
have a highly charged meaning-since it will generally signal imminent relief from
withdrawal distress. It is exceedingly difficult to distinguish a positive feeling of pleasure
from the pleasantness that follows the relief of distress or pain. Perhaps there is no
difference. Some theorists have even suggested that addicts shoot heroin in order to
achieve withdrawal distress--- a distress that can then be pleasurably relieved by the next
fix.

Most addicts who mainline heroin, when asked what happens when they "kick the habit,"
describe the classic withdrawal syndrome--- nausea, vomiting, aches and pains, yawning,
sneezing, and so on. When asked what happens after withdrawal, they describe an equally
specific "post-addiction syndrome"-a wavering, unstable composite of anxiety,
depression, and craving for the drug. The craving is not continuous but seems to come
and go in waves of varying intensity, for months, even years, after withdrawal. It is
particularly likely to return in moments of emotional stress. Following an intense wave of
craving, drug-seeking behavior is likely to set in, and the ex-addict relapses. When asked
how he feels following a return to heroin, he is likely to reply, "It makes me feel normal
again"--- that is, it relieves the ex-addict's chronic triad of anxiety, depression, and
craving.

It is this view--- that an addict takes heroin in order to "feel normal" * --- that is hardest
for a nonaddict to understand and to believe. Yet it is consonant with everything else that
is known about narcotics addiction--- and there is not a scrap of scientific evidence to
impugn the addict's own view. The ex-addict who returns to heroin, if this view is
accepted, is not a pleasure-craving hedonist but an anxious, depressed patient who
desperately craves a return to a normal mood and state of mind.

Pleasure chemical in the brain governs response to pain too.

Pain and pleasure may be antonyms but a research has shown that dopamine, also known
as the pleasure chemical, is involved in response to pain too.
*
"It appears from our study that dopamine acts as an interface between stress, pain and
emotions, or between physical and emotional events, and that it's activated with both
positive and negative stimuli," says senior author Jon-Kar Zubieta, M.D., Ph.D.,
professor of psychiatry and radiology at the U-M Medical School and a member of the U-
M Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute and U-M Depression Center. "It
appears to act as a mechanism that responds to the salience of a stimuli - the importance
of it to the individual - and makes it relevant for them to respond to."
*
dopamine was active in areas of the brain region known as the basal ganglia, the same
region where it has been observed to respond to positive stimuli, such as food or sex.
*
the more a person rated the pain as causing emotional distress and fear, the more
dopamine was released in the area known as the nucleus accumbens - the same region
implicated in drug addiction.
*
Study Shows Brain's 'Pleasure Chemical' Is Involved In Response To Pain Too
the brain's dopamine system is highly active while someone experiences pain -- and that
this response varies between individuals in a way that relates directly to how the pain
makes them feel. It's the first time that dopamine has been linked to pain response in
humans.
Neurochemical Commands

All addictive drugs and all addictions increase dopamine; that is why they are addictive.
Money, power, gambling, shopping, computer games…if something increases your
dopamine, then it’s addictive for you.

Orgasm is the biggest blast of dopamine (legally) available to us.

potential for seeking out other addictive thrills; all governed by the reward circuitry of the
brain.

..the transgression and fear of being caught add an extra thrill to the experience ... and no
one cares about your "orientation" in a lavatory -- in there, it's all business.

What's behind the Coolidge Effect? And is there a way around it?

In past editions of this newsletter, we've talked about a post-passion hangover that pushes
partners apart. Here's a brief summary for new readers:

The hangover is the product of perfectly natural neurochemical shifts, which occur in the
primitive part of the brain, or limbic system. This limbic system is the center of emotions,
drives, impulses, and subconscious decision-making. Within the limbic system is the
reward center, which dopamine activates to urge us to take actions that further our
survival or pass on our genes, such as eating, sex, bonding with offspring, taking risks.

Think of dopamine as the neurochemical of all motivation. You don't actually crave ice
cream, or a winning lotto ticket, or a romp in the sack. You crave dopamine. In reality
that blast of dopamine is your reward. All addictive substances and activities increase
dopamine. It's why they are addictive. (Is orgasm addictive? Yes, it has even been
compared to shooting heroin in brain scans.) But addictive substances and activities don't
give lasting pleasure. As soon as dopamine successfully motivates a behavior, it drops
off, awaiting its next opportunity to push you around.

One trigger for the Coolidge Effect is novelty itself.1 Another is a drop in dopamine
following orgasm. Instead of that delicious sense of aliveness and thrilling anticipation
you felt when your dopamine was high, you now feel flat, or even needy or depleted. The
orgasms themselves initiate this drop in dopamine. While dopamine is low, you are
especially susceptible to anything at all that will raise your dopamine again, such as
calorie-rich food, gambling, alcohol, a shopping spree, cocaine, porn on the internet, or
sex. (See Sex and Addiction for more on this topic.)
A new potential sex partner is one of the most effective "cures" for the "dopamine blues."

Wired for Love

Because fertilization-driven sex is driven by the reward circuitry of the brain, it has the
potential to become addictive.
*
Lovemaking with the emphasis on gentleness and giving, that is, without the emphasis on
"getting to climax," is a reliable way to balance the reward circuitry of the brain. The
result is increased harmony between lovers.
*
It seems that "familiarity breeds contempt."
The most natural solution to such a situation, in order to invigorate the relationship, is a
temporary cessation of physical contact.

The distance gives them space to communicate on a different level and to be friends with
each other. This emphasis on communication then carries over into the time when there is
no separation, creating emotional intimacy.

The goal is to build emotional closeness. Then, as the couple rediscover each other and
express their feelings, their reunion is intended to be the wedding night all over again.

subconscious feelings of scarcity can still produce mood swings, uneasiness, irritability,

**
Orgasms and addictions have two things in common. They both produce an initial
pleasurable experience, and both are followed by an unpleasant hangover. "What goes up
must come down." It’s simple biology; body systems must return to balance, or
homeostasis. What goes up and down in this case is your dopamine. That can play havoc
with your mood and the way in which you perceive your partner.
*
With conventional sex and orgasms you’re going in and out of these dopamine extremes.
So are we saying that orgasm makes you schizophrenic and then depressed, as in the
chart above? No, but it definitely affects your behavior and mood. Not long after Gary
(author of this article) got off of the orgasm/dopamine roller coaster, his lifelong chronic
depression disappeared. Considering the behaviors associated with high and low
dopamine may help explain how one’s lover can do the "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" thing.

The Power of Oxytocin

Friendships are also built on oxytocin, and can be quite deep bonds. Yet, what happens to
friendships that turn into sexual relationships? Often things change for the worse.
*
This change is an excellent example of the neurochemical shift or hangover kicking in.
As things go sour, something is interfering with oxytocin’s bonding effects.
Making love with lots of affection, without the dopamine-driven highs and lows of
conventional sex, seems to keep oxytocin levels high. The more oxytocin you produce,
the more receptive you are to it. This is the opposite of dopamine. Addicts need more and
more of a drug, which, of course, which actually means they need more and more
dopamine. Luckily you don’t need an ever-increasing "fix" of oxytocin to maintain the
same gushy feeling. In fact, your partner just looks better and better…at least to you. This
is why this practice can strengthen your bond with your mate.
*

Dopamine and its hangover are the keys to promiscuity, whereas oxytocin is the key to
monogamy.

Oxytocin has huge benefits, both emotionally and physically. Oxytocin is the answer to
the question, "What is the mechanism by which love and affection positively affect our
health?"

*
Oxytocin reduces cravings.
*
Oxytocin calms.
*
This quality of oxytocin explains why companionship can increase longevity
Or speed recovery:
*
Oxytocin appears be a major reason that SSRI’s [Prozac-type drugs] ease depression,
perhaps because high levels of cortisol are the chief culprits in depression and anxiety
disorders.
*
Oxytocin increases sexual receptivity and counteracts impotence, which is why this other
way of making love remains pleasurable.
*
oxytocin reduces cravings and increases sexual receptivity. This allows making love
without orgasm to be completely satisfying. The affection is always there, flowing
between you and your partner. When we tiptoe around dopamine’s highs and lows, we
encourage more oxytocin receptors and actually re-wire our brain, getting pleasure from a
different cocktail of neurochemicals. Understanding the power of oxytocin suggests how
sexual relationships can heal.