Caffeine has the reinforcing effects (dopamine and others) not just for activities consumed during and after the intake, but also for a period before (about 30 minutes). Good to take into account.

Caffeine not only produces dopamine but it also exponentially increases the effects of dopamine (by increasing dopamine receptors).

So definitely avoid caffeine when doing pleasurable activities you don't want to do anymore (such as porn).

( ~26:00)

What if you drink caffeine during tasks you don't like, will you then come to like said task because of the associated dopamine? Just like caffeine can make you like a mug...

Caffeine is kind of addicting (~1:10)

It's a reinforcer. It's the dopamine of food.

The sources are patents. 2014a and 2014b.

It is interesting that the benefits were retained over a large dose range. Oddly, full doses (when combined with benzos) can help treat tardive dyskinesia. Thus, it seems plausible that the benefits for RLS are retained at even higher doses. I've not yet checked the sources to see if higher doses were tested. That is, doses over 1 mg. I doubt they were, because it would probably have been mentioned here.

System 1 vs. System 2

Counteract the dopamine-dependent short-attention-spanned culture of today. Stop. Take time to think. Reflect. Go away from the devices. Perform analog note-making. Slow down.

The motor movement accelerates the loop

The liking system stops when you are satisfied, the dopamine system never stops. It's never enough

There is a specific cue that sets off the loop. In fact it looks like the habit loop. There is a craving and a cue.

Is a kind of monster that you are feeding.

The first thing I ask people who cannot focus for more than an hour straight (which I would argue is a necessity for proper deep learning; see also Flow) is how their dopamine regulation is.

Dopamine regulation is the biggest factor that I know of (I am not an expert, so there might be even more influential factors) that hampers with the ability to focus for prolonged times in a cyclic way.

One can enjoy learning, and thus focus, if the average dopamine the brain produces is close to the dopamine they get when performing the act of learning. This is hard if someone uses "dopamine factories" such as TikTok and other shortform content.

Since 1908 there's also been the move towards small digestible social media which increases the dial on repetition and duplication, but the sense of flow created by dopamine hits to be found in the attention economy make these difficult things to overcome.

15:00 Before, we used to sit down with ourselves and process emotions. Now, we distract ourselves with technology.

This aligns with my findings on taking more breaks and doing nothing in these breaks. This lessens dopamine spikes and gives space to have productive thinking. It engages more so the default mode network of our brains.

08:00 New information gives dopamine. Distraction arises from too many information that is goal irrelevant.

04:18 All flow triggers are either (a) reducing cognitive load, or (b) increasing dopamine or norepinephrine, that drive focus.

Rian Doris people to first start reducing cognitive load. People are overwhelmed and feel like they can't take on new habits and tactics. He recommends to remove clutter from one's life. The more clutter we remove, the more time is left for flow.

11:00 passion gives dopamine (which is addictive), making us obsessed with our passion

07:00 flow increases dopamine/pattern recognition

A nice encapsulation of evolutionary challenges that humans are facing.

11:40 dopamine important in sticking to/dropping a habit

(14:20-19:00) Dopamine Prediction Error is explained by Andrew Huberman in the following way: When we anticipate something exciting dopamine levels rise and rise, but when we fail it drops below baseline, decreasing motivation and drive immensely, sometimes even causing us to get sad. However, when we succeed, dopamine rises even higher, increasing our drive and motivation significantly... This is the idea that successes build upon each other, and why celebrating the "marginal gains" is a very powerful tool to build momentum and actually make progress. Surprise increases this effect even more: big dopamine hit, when you don't anticipate it.

Social Media algorithms make heavy use of this principle, therefore enslaving its user, in particular infinite scrolling platforms such as TikTok... Your dopamine levels rise as you're looking for that one thing you like, but it drops because you don't always have that one golden nugget. Then it rises once in a while when you find it. This contrast creates an illusion of enjoyment and traps the user in an infinite search of great content, especially when it's shortform. It makes you waste time so effectively. This is related to getting the success mindset of preferring delayed gratification over instant gratification.

It would be useful to reflect and introspect on your dopaminic baseline, and see what actually increases and decreases your dopamine, in addition to whether or not these things help to achieve your ambitions. As a high dopaminic baseline (which means your dopamine circuit is getting used to high hits from things as playing games, watching shortform content, watching porn) decreases your ability to focus for long amounts of time (attention span), and by extent your ability to learn and eventually reach success. Studying and learning can actually be fun, if your dopamine levels are managed properly, meaning you don't often engage in very high-dopamine emitting activities. You want your brain to be used to the low amounts of dopamine that studying gives. A framework to help with this reflection would be Kolb's.

A short-term dopamine reset is to not use the tool or device for about half an hour to an hour (or do NSDR). However, this is not a long-term solution.

• The desire to be right
• combined with the brain’s protective mechanisms
• make it that much harder
• to change opinions and beliefs,

• even in the presence of new information

• COMMENT

  • Winning an argument causes the body to release dopamine and adrenaline
  • Losing an argument causes the body to release cortisol, trigger fight or fight response and overrides rational thinking

Google Scholar is needed to access annotations in context "Listen to the noise: noise is beneficial for cognitive performance in ADHD"

Author's self-described "most intriguing result"

Prediction of Moderate Brain Arousal model and author's additional argument.

The question of potential addiction to self-induced states that activate the dopamine (and/or other neurochemical) reward system(s) is important. From a more philosophical angle, should we welcome beneficial addictions that, if cultivated, might significantly improve individual and group quality of life? Isn't this related to our high regard for replacing detrimental with positive habits? Habit formation and maintenance also depends on activation of neural reward systems (see Nir Eyal's book, Hooked).

Again, the brain has been trained that when you do this thing, you will get a reward. It's also interesting that the brain knows to release dopamine in anticipation of the event.

I think this is the first mention of dopamine specifically that I have come across in my research. Dopamine is released, you brain gets a reward, and remembers that this thing or action is good. It makes send that evolution would lead to this, so that survival actions are ingrained into the brain.

Serotonin can bind to H3 Histone and cause stem cells to become serotonin neurons.

This research led the same team to wonder if Dopamine might act in a similar way.

The serotonin paper is here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30867594/

Very bold claim to say that discovering that these neurotransmitters can induce epigenetic changes will transform basic science and medicine.

Rats were genetically modified to decrease dopaminylation (modifying M3 so dopamine couldn't attach). This correlated to the Ventral Tegmental Area firing less (less cocaine impulse) and released less dopamine. This showed that these changes to H3, and subsequently the dopaminylation, did impact brain's reward circuit operation.

Dopaminylation - Dopamine's ability to enter a cell's nucleus and control specific genes.

CRAZY!

The same enzyme that helps serotonin bind to H3 can also help dopamine bind to H3.

Paper found here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32273471/

This makes RLS sound very similar to Parkinson's.

The difference is if listing egocentric stuff (I'm impressive and I feel better than others, I feel worthy for myself itself) or listing qualities that influence the surrounding world (I do social work to help refugees, I published a theory to improve the current state of philosophy, I completed a project or a school, I created something that now generates some kind of value).

The Replication Creators are creative just for themselves, so they get just short-term rewards.

The Skilled Creators are creative for the sharing with the others, so they get long-term rewards.