Charan Ranganath

And so what I think one theory goes is that dopamine energizes us to seek rewards or to seek information, right? So a big part of movement is you move to get something. it's approach, right? They talk about approach and avoidance as basic kind of things that you want to program. And so a person with Parkinson's disease has a problem with willful movement, tremors and stuff too.

But I think that dopamine is involved in this kind of energizing you to move. I think it's involved in energizing you to seek information. I think it's involved in energizing you to seek rewards. And so I do think there's some kind of a common pathway there. And it speaks to this issue of the difference, which you've talked about, and I talk about a lot, as wanting versus liking.

But I think that dopamine is involved in this kind of energizing you to move. I think it's involved in energizing you to seek information. I think it's involved in energizing you to seek rewards. And so I do think there's some kind of a common pathway there. And it speaks to this issue of the difference, which you've talked about, and I talk about a lot, as wanting versus liking.

But I think that dopamine is involved in this kind of energizing you to move. I think it's involved in energizing you to seek information. I think it's involved in energizing you to seek rewards. And so I do think there's some kind of a common pathway there. And it speaks to this issue of the difference, which you've talked about, and I talk about a lot, as wanting versus liking.

And so Kent Barrage at Michigan has done great work on this. gobs and gobs of manipulations of dopamine activity. And what he finds is an animal, let's say, that is deprived of dopamine, it will go for rewards just fine. It just won't work for them. It won't do the work that you need to get a reward. But if you just put it in front of them, they'll take it.

And so Kent Barrage at Michigan has done great work on this. gobs and gobs of manipulations of dopamine activity. And what he finds is an animal, let's say, that is deprived of dopamine, it will go for rewards just fine. It just won't work for them. It won't do the work that you need to get a reward. But if you just put it in front of them, they'll take it.

And so Kent Barrage at Michigan has done great work on this. gobs and gobs of manipulations of dopamine activity. And what he finds is an animal, let's say, that is deprived of dopamine, it will go for rewards just fine. It just won't work for them. It won't do the work that you need to get a reward. But if you just put it in front of them, they'll take it.

So what dopamine – it is heavily involved with these opioid systems that does drive reward responses and it's heavily involved in learning about rewards. And that's why you get a big dopaminergic bump when an animal gets a reward because you're learning about the reward and what predicted the reward. There's a little bit of a credit assignment process that takes place.

So what dopamine – it is heavily involved with these opioid systems that does drive reward responses and it's heavily involved in learning about rewards. And that's why you get a big dopaminergic bump when an animal gets a reward because you're learning about the reward and what predicted the reward. There's a little bit of a credit assignment process that takes place.

So what dopamine – it is heavily involved with these opioid systems that does drive reward responses and it's heavily involved in learning about rewards. And that's why you get a big dopaminergic bump when an animal gets a reward because you're learning about the reward and what predicted the reward. There's a little bit of a credit assignment process that takes place.

What's interesting is you get this too with actually my colleague at Davis, Brian Wilchin, some beautiful work where he's looked at trace conditioning, which is when you have like a – let's say if you play a tone and you wait a long time and then the animal gets a shock, right? And so what you find is that the animal learns to be afraid of the tone. But it's such a long time in his thing.

What's interesting is you get this too with actually my colleague at Davis, Brian Wilchin, some beautiful work where he's looked at trace conditioning, which is when you have like a – let's say if you play a tone and you wait a long time and then the animal gets a shock, right? And so what you find is that the animal learns to be afraid of the tone. But it's such a long time in his thing.

What's interesting is you get this too with actually my colleague at Davis, Brian Wilchin, some beautiful work where he's looked at trace conditioning, which is when you have like a – let's say if you play a tone and you wait a long time and then the animal gets a shock, right? And so what you find is that the animal learns to be afraid of the tone. But it's such a long time in his thing.

I think it's on the order of 10 seconds or above. the animal has to be somehow doing something to be able to blame that tone for getting shocked, right? And so what he found was that there's this burst of dopamine activity in the locus coeruleus, which is actually known for norepinephrine, but there's really cool work on dopamine in the LC now modulating hippocampus. Sorry to get all nerdy here.

I think it's on the order of 10 seconds or above. the animal has to be somehow doing something to be able to blame that tone for getting shocked, right? And so what he found was that there's this burst of dopamine activity in the locus coeruleus, which is actually known for norepinephrine, but there's really cool work on dopamine in the LC now modulating hippocampus. Sorry to get all nerdy here.

I think it's on the order of 10 seconds or above. the animal has to be somehow doing something to be able to blame that tone for getting shocked, right? And so what he found was that there's this burst of dopamine activity in the locus coeruleus, which is actually known for norepinephrine, but there's really cool work on dopamine in the LC now modulating hippocampus. Sorry to get all nerdy here.

Yes, that's right. And sometimes they co-release from the same neurons, from what I understand. And so what seems to be happening is, and he's studying this now, but what seems to be happening is it's not that the animal's going, oh, I just heard a tone, I heard a tone, and then they get shocked.

Yes, that's right. And sometimes they co-release from the same neurons, from what I understand. And so what seems to be happening is, and he's studying this now, but what seems to be happening is it's not that the animal's going, oh, I just heard a tone, I heard a tone, and then they get shocked.

Yes, that's right. And sometimes they co-release from the same neurons, from what I understand. And so what seems to be happening is, and he's studying this now, but what seems to be happening is it's not that the animal's going, oh, I just heard a tone, I heard a tone, and then they get shocked.

it may be more like they get a shock and then they get an immediate what just happened and then they get a memory retrieval of the tone and that allows them to put the two together to learn that this tone caused the shock, right? And dopamine seems to be playing a part in that learning process too. So it's not just about reward.