Dopamine is known as feel good chemical that is secreted in brain related to reward and pleasure. Dopamine can give sensations like sipping a fine bottle of champagne or listening to some good music. Dopamine is involved in cognitive processing. University of California recently set out to investigate spontaneous impulse of dopamine. From a published research done by UC San Diego researcher and their colleagues at July 23, 2021 in Current Biology it was found that mice can willfully manipulate dopamine pulses.
It was found that necocortex in mice is flooded with dopamine impulses which occur approximately once per minute. Mice are aware that these impulses which were recorded in the Lab through molecular and optical imaging techniques are actually occurring. From an experiment it was devised a scheme that they were rewarded if they could control dopamine signals. It was found that mice could control these signals and they learned to anticipate and volitionally act upon a portion of them. It was also found dopamine is secreted once per minute and it can be secreted in other circumstances rather than circumstances of pleasure or reward.
“Mice learned to secrete dopamine impulses prior to receiving a reward,” the researchers note in the paper.” These effects were reversed when the reward was removed. It was in fact that spontaneous dopamine impulses may serve as a salient event in behavioral planning.”
This research opens a new arena of study of dopamine and brain dynamics. There arises an area to research that how dopamine activities are obtained other then seeking sustenance, finding a mate. There is question arising that can human control secretion of dopamine like mice?