It's Hackin' Time

Dopamine aka the "happy hormone" has made its way back into social media. You may have seen some viral posts about "dopamine hacking" in various forms of social media that involve some sort of routine in order to have your body increase its production of dopamine. But is it just responsible for making the brain feel happy?

A recent study has looked at the relationship between neuron type and dopamine function and found a previously unknown and unexpected function. Before we dive too far into the results of the study, let's first cover what dopamine does. You know that happy feeling you get when you buy something? Or when your favorite team wins or you get invited to see your favorite artist? Yes, the feeling is real, but that prolonged happy feeling and increased euphoria is the cause of dopamine. Dopamine neurons communicate reward to the brain through firing rates and patterns of release, which the brain uses for learning.

The two known methods are phasic and tonic. Phasic firing refers to rapid bursts that cause a short-term peak in dopamine (unexpected rewards). Tonic firing is when there is a slow and steady release of dopamine where there are no surprises. However, that's not the only thing dopamine does. Dopamine neurons also respond to aversive events, well, some of them do.

So far, researchers have identified seven different types of dopamine neurons by studying their genetic profiles. In fact, a study published in August of this year was the first to parse dopamine function based on neuron subtype. The researchers examined three types of dopamine neurons and found that two tracked rewards and aversive events while the third seemed to monitor movement. This changes what scientists previously understood about motivation and motion and will potentially improve our understanding of dopamine as it is further studied. It may also help target different treatment options for diseases that interfere with dopamine production or reception, such as drug addiction. It could also help with treatment for movement-based diseases like Parkinson's disease.

It will be interesting to watch how the continued research of dopamine unfolds and whether or not it opens new doors for treatment options - or dopamine hacking.

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