Misunderstanding dopamine: Why the language of addiction matters | Cyrus McCandless | TEDxPortsmouth
Summary
TLDRThe speaker, a neuroscientist, emphasizes the critical distinction between true addiction to drugs and the colloquial use of 'addiction' for non-essentials like smartphones or junk food. They argue that misusing the term 'addiction' hinders effective dialogue and solutions to the drug crisis. The speaker clarifies that dopamine, contrary to popular belief, isn't a 'feel-good' chemical but a motivator, directing our attention and energy towards significant stimuli. They explain how addictive drugs artificially inflate dopamine levels, creating an overwhelming 'success' signal that overpowers other motivations. This biological response, not a moral failing, is at the core of addiction, demanding a sophisticated, research-informed approach to treatment.
Takeaways
- 🧠 The speaker is a neuroscientist with extensive experience studying consumer behavior, decision-making, motivation, and addiction.
- 🚫 There's a call to action for marketers, app developers, and journalists to stop equating common activities like using iPhones or playing games with addiction to drugs.
- 🌟 The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding addiction correctly to address the current drug crisis effectively.
- 🏥 The current punitive approach to drug enforcement is criticized for not considering the biological nature of addiction and for limiting treatment options.
- 📈 There's been significant progress in the science of addiction over the last thirty years, which has not been fully adopted in treatment approaches.
- 🍔 The speaker clarifies that liking and wanting are processed differently in the brain, and dopamine's role is not about feeling good but about focusing on important things.
- 📊 Dopamine's role in addiction is explained through the 'surprise success' signal it sends when addictive drugs are used, unlike natural rewards like food.
- 📉 The speaker contrasts the dopamine response to natural rewards with the overwhelming response to drug use, highlighting the difference in intensity and duration.
- 🔄 The script discusses how addictive drugs hijack the brain's reward system by creating a false sense of 'surprise success' that leads to a focus on drug-seeking behavior.
- 🧬 Addiction is framed as a biological issue rather than a moral failing, requiring a sophisticated response that acknowledges the brain's motivation mechanisms.
Q & A
What is the speaker's professional background?
-The speaker is a neuroscientist who has spent over 11 years studying normal consumer behavior and decision-making, and prior to that, studied motivation and addiction in the lab.
Why does the speaker believe the misuse of the term 'addiction' is problematic?
-The speaker believes that misusing the term 'addiction' for non-essential behaviors like using iPhones or playing games can hinder productive conversations and solutions to the serious drug crisis, potentially leading to the loss of lives.
What is the current approach to drug enforcement according to the speaker?
-The current approach to drug enforcement is aggressively punitive, under the assumption that being hard on addicts will deter them, which the speaker suggests is not working as evidenced by the worsening drug crisis.
How has the scientific understanding of addiction evolved in the last thirty years?
-The scientific understanding of addiction has made significant progress in the last thirty years, but this knowledge has been slow to be adopted in new approaches to treatment and policy.
What is the difference between 'liking' and 'wanting' according to dopamine's role?
-Dopamine is involved in the process of 'wanting' rather than 'liking.' It teaches us how and where to get things we need or like, and it does this by focusing our attention on important things and prioritizing them over less important ones.
How does dopamine respond to the first unexpected occurrence of a positive event?
-Dopamine responds to the first unexpected occurrence of a positive event by signaling surprise and prompting the brain to remember the events leading up to it, in order to predict and seek out similar rewards in the future.
What is the difference in dopamine response between natural rewards like food and addictive drugs?
-Natural rewards like food cause a dopamine response that is proportional to the value of the reward and is based on learned prediction. In contrast, addictive drugs cause a direct and artificial increase in dopamine, creating a 'surprise success' signal that is much stronger and longer-lasting than natural rewards.
Why does the speaker argue that addiction is not a moral failing but a biological one?
-The speaker argues that addiction is a biological issue because the brain's response to addictive drugs is a direct and overwhelming release of dopamine that creates a 'surprise success' signal, which is much stronger than any natural reward and teaches the brain to seek more of the drug regardless of other motivations or consequences.
What does the speaker suggest is a more effective approach to addressing addiction?
-The speaker suggests a sophisticated response that recognizes the biological nature of addiction, focusing on helping addicts regain control over their behavior rather than punishing them for a loss of control that is beyond their ability to predict or prevent.
How does the speaker relate the understanding of dopamine to the broader conversation about addiction?
-The speaker relates the understanding of dopamine to addiction by explaining how dopamine's role in 'wanting' versus 'liking' and its response to unexpected rewards can lead to a biological vulnerability to addiction, which is a key factor in the development and persistence of addiction.
Outlines
🔬 Understanding Addiction vs. Normal Behavior
The speaker, a neuroscientist, emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between addiction and normal consumer behavior. They argue that the misuse of the term 'addiction' for non-essential behaviors like smartphone use or playing games trivializes the serious issue of drug addiction. The speaker expresses concern that this misunderstanding hinders effective dialogue and solutions, leading to a punitive approach to drug enforcement that doesn't address the root causes. They highlight the progress made in the science of addiction over the past thirty years and the need to adopt new approaches based on this research. The speaker also clarifies that while checking a phone frequently may feel compulsive, it is different from the loss of control seen in drug addiction.
🧠 Dopamine's Role in Motivation and Addiction
The speaker delves into the role of dopamine in motivation and addiction, correcting the common misconception that dopamine is a 'feel-good' chemical. Instead, dopamine is shown to be a signal for attention and motivation, directing energy towards important things and away from less important ones. The speaker explains how dopamine responds to unexpected rewards, such as the first taste of a cheeseburger, and how it learns to predict and seek out these rewards. They contrast this with the direct effect of addictive drugs on dopamine, which bypass normal mechanisms and create an overwhelming 'success' signal that the brain learns to seek out at all costs. The speaker uses this to illustrate the profound difference between the brain's response to natural rewards and the artificial, exaggerated response to drugs, which can lead to addiction.
🌟 Addressing Addiction as a Biological Issue
In the final paragraph, the speaker calls for a shift in perspective on addiction, viewing it as a biological issue rather than a moral failing. They argue that understanding the biological mechanisms behind addiction is crucial for developing effective treatments and responses. The speaker suggests that by recognizing addiction as a biological phenomenon, society can move towards supporting individuals in regaining control over their behavior, rather than punishing them for a condition that is beyond their control. The speaker concludes with a strong statement that addiction is a biological crisis inherent to human nature, and that this understanding is essential for making progress in addressing the issue.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Addiction
💡Motivation
💡Dopamine
💡Drug Crisis
💡Punitive Approach
💡Treatment
💡Biological Vulnerability
💡Reward System
💡Predictive Coding
💡Misunderstanding
💡Journalists
Highlights
The misuse of the term 'addiction' for non-essential behaviors like phone use or gaming can hinder understanding and addressing the real drug crisis.
The current approach to drug enforcement, which is punitive, has not been effective and has limited treatment options.
Significant progress in the science of addiction over the last thirty years has been slow to influence policy and treatment.
The speaker argues that addiction is a biological issue, not a moral failing, and should be treated as such.
Dopamine is not a 'feel-good' chemical; it plays a role in motivation and attention, not in indicating how much we like something.
Dopamine helps prioritize goals by focusing our attention on what's important and relegating less important things.
The brain processes 'liking' and 'wanting' differently, which is a key distinction in understanding addiction.
Addictive drugs hijack the dopamine system by directly affecting dopamine release, unlike natural rewards like food.
The dopamine response to drugs is a 'surprise success' signal, indicating an unexpected reward that is much greater than anticipated.
The speaker illustrates the stark difference in dopamine release between natural rewards and drug use with a graph from a 1988 study.
Addiction creates an overwhelming 'success' signal in the brain, which can override other motivations and focus solely on obtaining more of the drug.
The speaker emphasizes that addiction is not about liking drugs but about the brain's response to the overwhelming reward signal they provide.
Understanding the difference between normal likes and addiction is crucial for developing effective responses to the addiction crisis.
The speaker calls for a sophisticated response to addiction that recognizes the biological nature of the condition and the progress in addiction research.
Addiction should be addressed by helping addicts regain control, not by punishing them for a loss of control they couldn't have anticipated.
The speaker concludes by reiterating that addiction is a biological crisis, not a moral one, and this understanding is essential for effective change.
Transcripts
so I'm a neuroscientist I've spent the
last 11 years studying normal consumer
behavior and decision-making but before
that I spent even more years studying
motivation and addiction in the lab and
I believe that if we have any chance of
solving our current drug crisis the
marketers app developers and most of all
journalists need to stop using the word
addiction when they're talking about
iPhones candy crush saga or
cheeseburgers if our only problems were
too much junk food or apps that took up
too much of our attention then our
misunderstanding of addiction wouldn't
be a big deal but we've got a really
serious problem to deal with right now
and I worry that by misunderstanding
addiction or loosing our chance to have
productive conversations and to find
solutions that really work we've lost
tens of thousands of lives to drug
addiction last year and it's getting
worse but we continue to take the same
aggressively punitive approach to drug
enforcement under the presumption that
if we're just hard enough on addicts
they'll stop and we've severely limited
the kinds of treatments that are
available and the availability of those
treatments and we've been very slow to
adopt new approaches from the science of
addiction where we've made huge progress
over the last thirty years if our
current approach worked
don't you think things would be getting
better and stead of worse marketers and
journalists have perpetuated a key
misunderstanding that what feels like
your addiction to your phone is the same
thing as addiction as real addiction to
addictive drugs and while it may feel
like a compulsion to check your phone
every couple of minutes you're still
very much in control over that
relationship and I hope that if we all
understand a little better the
difference between these two kinds of
relationships with substances it will be
in a better position to make some
progress on this crisis and this
misunderstanding is related to a
long-standing misunderstanding
about dopamine so McDonald's is probably
where you learned about cheeseburgers
for the first time as a child right
that's where you learned that you like
them where you learned that you wanted
them and it's how you figured out how to
get them how many people in the audience
liked cheeseburgers how many people want
a cheeseburger right now and you might
really want a cheeseburger right now but
are you motivated enough to stand up
right now and go get one anybody leave
the theater no okay
well you're experiencing it's called
competitive reinforcement some goals are
more important than others we may like
cheeseburgers
and we may even want cheeseburgers but
it's not important enough to you to get
up right now and abandon what you're
doing to go get one but we need to
breathe and most of us feel like we need
to find our kids if we don't know where
they are so we have priorities we all
tend to think that we want things
because we like them but if you really
think about that for a minute you'll
find a lot of situations where that
doesn't strictly apply so you might want
a cheeseburger right now and you might
think that you want a cheeseburger
because you like cheeseburgers and it's
mostly harmless to think that you want
cheeseburgers just because you like
cheeseburgers scientists also used to
think that we like things because we
want them or we want things because we
like them it seemed obvious but recently
we figured out that the brain process is
liking things and wanting things in
different ways they're not equal and I
want to focus on motivation so it turns
out that dopamine is not the feel-good
chemical that we thought it was dopamine
does not make us feel good and it
doesn't tell us how much we like things
don't mean teaches us how and where to
get the things that we need or just the
things that we like and it does this in
a deceptively simple way
dopamine makes us pay attention to
things that are important put our energy
into the things that are most important
and let less important things wait and
to do this it depends on a nice clear
signal from dopamine neurons in the
brain
it's delivered with precise timing first
we're surprised the first time we get a
cheeseburger right someone hands us a
cheeseburger out of the blue and
dopamine says hey something good just
happened something I didn't expect but
what it's really doing is it's telling
us to remember all the things that
happened before we got that cheeseburger
and try to figure out which of those
things are actually related to it
actually predict the fact that we're
gonna get a cheeseburger
so after you've had that first
cheeseburger the next time you get a
cheeseburger don't mean does something
very different now dopamine response the
signs that it has learned predicts the
appearance of cheeseburgers so now
you're driving down the road and you see
those signs they say I'm thinking of a
burgers coming right
burgers ahead and what happens now when
you get that cheeseburger nothing don't
mean doesn't care how much you like that
cheeseburger it only cares about the
things that predict that cheeseburger
that it was surprised by once in the
past so what's the other thing that can
happen here what happens if you see the
prediction that a cheeseburger is coming
and then cheeseburger doesn't come
dopamine actually stops and that teaches
the brain then maybe these weren't such
great predictors after all when
something more important than something
else is going to happen dopamine
responds more strongly to things that
are more highly valued but addictive
drugs don't affect dopamine the same way
that cheeseburgers and iPhones do
addictive drugs go directly into the
brain and effect the release of dopamine
directly you take the drug and after you
take the drug if you take a sufficient
dose of it you're releasing a whole lot
of dopamine so what does that look like
it looks like that surprise success
signal right so what you're seeing here
for all of these drugs are getting this
huge release of dopamine and what it's
saying is surprise this is a success
this is way more than it may way more of
a success than I thought it would be
because normally when you predict that
something good is gonna happen to you
dopamine doesn't respond at all right
now but dopamine in there artificially
and it's acting as though this drug has
presented you with this huge surprise
success
so here I'm surprised when it starts out
now I'm more surprised as time goes on
and I get even more surprised as time
goes on and that signal goes on for
hours this means that you're getting way
more reward than you thought you would
so you need to upgrade your prediction
of how much your reward you're gonna get
when you take this drug next time just
to kind of keep your dopamine stable now
I want to show this to you in one other
way that this comes from a paper from
1988 and I just want you to get a feel
for how dramatic the differences are
between you know that little blip of
dopamine that you get for eating a
cheeseburger for the first time or
predicting a cheeseburger versus taking
one of these drugs now this isn't
dopamine this is dopamine recorded in
rats who are taking very high doses of
drugs right so the highest dose of
alcohol that you see there that peak of
that chart is the equivalent of taking
about 17 shots in about five minutes
which would kill anyone here is not an
alcoholic but that's what it that's
what's happening right every time you
take a big dose of an opioid if you're
tolerant to them and you can tolerate
those big doses you get this huge
surprise success signal right this
overwhelming dopamine response happens
every single time you take a big dose of
these drugs the drug is telling the
brain whatever just happened was
surprisingly good you've succeeded
you've succeeded way more than you ever
expected to whether you enjoyed it or
not this huge success signal always
takes your brain by surprise because
you're directly creating this big
surprise success signal it's bigger than
any other reinforcement signal that you
get and it keeps going for much longer
in a lot of cases hours this dopamine
signal tells all of your competing
motivations to leave you alone you've
got more important things to do and they
tell you to focus on this one thing
above all else this place this situation
this little baggie of drugs is the place
to be anything to do getting more of
this drug is the most important thing
that you can do right now and your brain
knows exactly how to get that big reward
that big surprise success signal and
it'll climb over all of your other
motivations to get it now sure those
times that somebody took heroin or meth
before they were addicted those were
probably bad choices to make but the
amount of reward that your brain gets
from those drugs is always much bigger
than you expected
to be you can never accurately predict
how much reward you're going to get your
brains always getting this huge surprise
success signal that says you should
really focus your energy on this and do
more of it because it was surprisingly
good and it's no matter how much you
think you know or how much experience
you have and if you don't understand
that liking and wanting are really two
different things then you're vulnerable
to this this is not a moral failing it's
a biological one and the same biological
vulnerability exists in all of our
brains addicts want their drugs far more
than you could ever even conceive of
wanting your iPhone or Facebook or
anything else it's not because they like
the drugs it's because when they take
these big doses of drugs those doses of
drugs are teaching their brain to seek
out more and more drugs no matter the
cost
addiction demands a sophisticated
response one that recognizes what we
know about motivation and the progress
that we've made in drug based research
over the last three decades we the
health addicts regain control of their
own behavior and not punish them for a
loss of control that in a very real
sense they couldn't possibly have seen
coming when we understand that addiction
isn't anything like our normal likes and
wants I think we stand a much better
chance of addressing this problem
effectively let me say that again
addiction is not a moral crisis but a
biological one and that's something
we'll never change as long as we're
human thank you
[Applause]
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