Addiction

ADDICTION

Ever wanted to risk your life doing something extraordinary, like jumping off an airplane or speeding on the edge of a cliff? People take risk and later sometimes regret the consequences. Ever wonder, why you wanted to commit to something so bizarre. On my eighth birthday, I went skydiving. I am afraid of heights and all of a sudden I wanted to jump off an airplane. It was a lot of fun, but I was asked several times why. Why did I want to jump off an airplane if I can’t even go up a skyscraper without freaking out? The answer is the levels of Dopamine in my brain. 

This semester, Dr. Steidel came to talk to the Neuroscience seminar about his research on dopamine levels in mice. He explained when a mouse was awarded with food, their dopamine levels increased significantly. He also stated that some of his mice were willing to risk walking on electrical flooring in order to reach the food. They wanted to take risks to gain the feeling of excitement when they received food as an award. 

Recently, the Journal of Neuroscience talked about how people who had a gambling problem have increased levels of dopamine. They were willing to take risks to feel the pleasure. The pleasure from the dopamine levels in the brain exceed to an extent that they become addicted to it .The society of Neuroscience researched on the effects of dopamine levels on risk taking in gambling.  In their research, they gave their test subjects the drug called L-DOPA. L-DOPA is a drug that increases levels of Dopamine in you brain, which then leads you to make decisions that you would not take if your dopamine levels were not high. Thirty adults were given L-DOPA and had to perform a gambling task and then later they also received a placebo L-DOPA and performed another gambling task. According to their research, when given L-DOPA, the gamblers took higher risks and also were happier even with winning smaller amounts of money when they were on L-DOPA. The researchers compared the placebo and noticed that gamblers did not take as many high risks and were not as happy at winning as much as  L-DOPA induced wins. The Results to this study indicated that high dopamine levels can impact decision making and cause one to take higher risks as well has have mood swings like begin extremely happy over a small win. L-DOPA made people believe that gambling was fun and worth losing money to win. It seems as the higher dopamine levels increase, the more addicted you feel. Some people love how they feel with high dopamine levels, that they are willing to risk anything from money to their lives to feel the pleasure. The article states that this research can help explain why people gamble even when they are almost bankrupt. This research can help explain the “aspects of mood disorders” and impulse made decisions.

 It is all about the happiness you gain from risk taking and how it can affect your mood swings. So next time you decide to race on the highway or gamble at a casino remember to make decisions that are not impulse based, no matter how addicted you are to the pleasures of high dopamine.

The Society of Neuroscience. "High Levels of Dopamine May Lead to Increased 
     Risk-Taking." The Journal of Neuroscience July.8 (2015): n. pag. Print. 
     https://www.sfn.org/Press-Room/News-Release-Archives/2015/High-Levels-of-Dopamine-
May-Lead-to-Increased-Risk-Taking 


Image:
Gambler-  http://www.toledoblade.com/image/2013/08/06/800x_b1_cCM_z/CTY-casino28p-gaming.jpg
Skydiving- http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1507201/images/o-SKYDIVER-facebook.jpg