How Gaming Affects Your Brain (Andrew Huberman)

Summary

The video explores dopamine's powerful role in motivation, mood, and energy, with a focus on its connection to video games. Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman explains how video games can produce higher dopamine levels than nicotine, sex, or even cocaine. This dopamine surge can lead to addiction by progressively narrowing what brings pleasure, often causing people to neglect other aspects of life. The video offers insights into overcoming gaming addiction through dopamine detox, goal-setting, and accountability, emphasizing the importance of realistic and challenging steps to reclaim balance in life.

Takeaways

• 🎯 Dopamine plays a crucial role in how we feel, including motivation, energy, and mindset.
• 🧠 Video games can produce higher dopamine spikes (75% to 300% above baseline) compared to nicotine, sex, and even cocaine.
• 🎮 The novelty and constant engagement in video games trigger high levels of dopamine release, making them highly addictive.
• ⚖️ Dopamine peaks are followed by a drop in baseline dopamine, which can lead to lower motivation and mood after intense gaming sessions.
• 🕹️ Gaming addiction can cause people to lose interest in other activities like school, relationships, and fitness, narrowing their sources of pleasure.
• 📉 Continuous gaming can eventually deplete dopamine levels, leading to depression and loss of interest, sometimes resulting in severe consequences like suicide.
• 🧪 Addiction is described as a progressive narrowing of what brings pleasure, making life outside of gaming seem boring and unfulfilling.
• 🛑 A dopamine or video game detox is suggested as a way to reset dopamine levels, improving mood, concentration, and overall life quality.
• 📅 Setting realistic, challenging goals is essential when overcoming video game addiction. Gradual reduction or complete abstinence can help.
• 👥 Accountability, whether from friends, family, or community support, is vital for overcoming gaming addiction and maintaining healthier habits.

Q & A

What role does dopamine play in motivation and effort?

Dopamine plays a key role in modulating motivation, effort, and desire. It influences how you feel, your willingness to push through effort, and your overall energy levels. It also affects mindset and whether you believe you can accomplish a task.

Which activity increases dopamine above baseline the most: nicotine, sex, chocolate, or video games?

Video games have the potential to increase dopamine levels above baseline the most, with an increase ranging from 75% to 300%. In comparison, nicotine and sex increase dopamine by 100%, chocolate by 55%, and cocaine by 225%.

Why can video games be more stimulating than activities like sex or drug use?

Video games can stimulate higher dopamine release due to their novelty factor, which engages the brain continuously. This novelty creates a high level of dopamine release, often exceeding more passive activities like sex or drug use.

How does dopamine influence time perception?

Dopamine not only regulates motivation and pleasure but also controls time perception, making time feel faster or slower depending on dopamine levels in your brain.

What happens to dopamine levels after a peak in activity?

After a peak in dopamine during a pleasurable or stimulating activity, the baseline level of dopamine in the brain drops below normal, which can make you feel less motivated or even down after the activity.

What is the connection between video games and addiction according to Andrew Huberman?

Addiction is a progressive narrowing of activities that bring pleasure. With gaming addiction, people may lose interest in other aspects of life such as relationships, fitness, and school, leading to a depletion of dopamine response and potential depression.

How can a video game detox help with gaming addiction?

A video game detox allows your brain to reset its dopamine levels by abstaining from video games and other stimulating activities. Over time, this can restore interest in other, less stimulating but healthier activities.

What are the signs that someone might be addicted to video games?

Signs of gaming addiction include loss of interest in other activities like school, relationships, or fitness, and a progressive narrowing of what brings pleasure, which eventually leads to an inability to enjoy even gaming.

What steps can someone take to recover from a gaming addiction?

To recover from gaming addiction, one can start by doing a video game detox, setting realistic and challenging goals, and finding accountability through friends or a community of people going through similar challenges.

Why is novelty important in video game engagement?

Novelty in video games, especially those with high update speeds and constantly changing environments, can significantly boost dopamine levels. The constant exposure to new challenges keeps the brain highly engaged and excited.

Outlines

00:00

🧠 Understanding Dopamine's Role in Motivation and Desire

Dopamine plays a significant role in how we feel, influencing motivation, energy, and our ability to push through effort. While dopamine is often associated with pleasure, its real power lies in modulating multiple aspects of our mental and physical state. Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman explains that dopamine levels can vary depending on activities like nicotine, sex, chocolate, and video games. Interestingly, video games have the potential to raise dopamine levels even more than sex or nicotine. Huberman also stresses how the dopamine system functions, affecting everything from mindset to drive.

05:02

🎮 The Neuroscience of Gaming and Dopamine Addiction

Video games can create high levels of dopamine release, leading to gaming addiction. Huberman describes addiction as a progressive narrowing of what brings pleasure, which can cause people to lose interest in other important aspects of life such as relationships, fitness, and school. Over time, even gaming fails to provide the same dopamine release, which can lead to depression. Video games, especially those with high novelty, are potent triggers for dopamine, making them potentially more addictive than other activities. This behavior can severely deplete a person’s life quality.

10:05

🎯 Overcoming Gaming Addiction Through Detox and Goal Setting

Huberman emphasizes the importance of a video game detox to reset dopamine levels, allowing individuals to enjoy other aspects of life again. A detox can help reset a dopamine-depleted brain, helping people regain interest in less stimulating activities. He advises setting realistic yet challenging goals, taking small steps to reduce gaming or quit cold turkey, depending on individual needs. Detox programs have proven to help many people break their addiction, restoring balance in their lives.

🏆 Accountability and Support for Long-Term Success

To successfully combat gaming addiction, Huberman suggests accountability, either from friends and family or others going through similar experiences. Communities, such as Game Quitters, offer platforms for mutual support. Taking a quiz on gaming addiction severity can help individuals gauge their situation. Huberman also stresses the value of accountability partners and online communities to maintain motivation and reduce relapse risk, especially during difficult phases of the recovery process.

Keywords

💡Dopamine

Dopamine is a neuromodulator that plays a crucial role in motivation, pleasure, and energy levels. It regulates how you feel in the moment and influences long-term emotions like motivation and desire. In the video, dopamine is emphasized as the central mechanism behind behaviors such as gaming, where higher levels of dopamine release lead to increased engagement and potential addiction.

💡Neuromodulator

A neuromodulator, like dopamine, influences the communication between large groups of neurons rather than just two neurons, as neurotransmitters do. The video uses the metaphor of a coordinated dance to explain how neuromodulators orchestrate multiple neural circuits at once, thus shaping feelings of motivation, effort, and time perception.

💡Baseline dopamine

Baseline dopamine refers to the standard level of dopamine present in the brain at any given time. The video explains that while dopamine peaks during pleasurable or stimulating activities like video gaming, the baseline level can drop afterward, potentially leading to feelings of depression or lack of motivation.

💡Addiction

Addiction is described as a 'progressive narrowing of the things that bring you pleasure.' In the context of gaming, the video discusses how individuals may lose interest in other activities such as school, relationships, or fitness because their dopamine response becomes tied primarily to gaming. This can eventually lead to a lack of motivation and severe depression.

💡Video games

Video games are highlighted as a major stimulus for dopamine release, potentially increasing dopamine levels by up to 300% above baseline, which can surpass the dopamine increase from activities like sex or nicotine. The video explores how this high level of stimulation can lead to addiction, as individuals seek the excitement and novelty that games provide.

💡Novelty

Novelty, in the context of video games, refers to the introduction of new and exciting stimuli that keep players engaged. According to the video, games with high update speeds or constantly changing environments release more dopamine because the brain responds strongly to novel experiences, making these games more addictive.

💡Dopamine detox

Dopamine detox refers to abstaining from activities that produce excessive dopamine release, such as gaming, in order to reset the brain’s dopamine levels. The video suggests that a 30-day detox can help restore baseline dopamine levels and allow individuals to find pleasure in other activities like reading or socializing.

💡Motivation

Motivation is closely tied to dopamine levels, as discussed in the video. High dopamine peaks during rewarding activities increase motivation to repeat those activities, while a drop in baseline dopamine can lead to a lack of motivation. The video explores how video games can become a primary source of motivation, at the cost of other life areas.

💡Craving

Craving is the intense desire for a rewarding experience, driven by dopamine. In the video, craving is linked to the urge to continue playing video games, even after the initial excitement wears off. This craving is part of the cycle of addiction, where individuals constantly seek dopamine rewards.

💡Accountability

Accountability is presented as a strategy to overcome video game addiction. The video encourages individuals to involve friends, family, or an online community to help them stay accountable to their goals of reducing gaming or completing a dopamine detox. This external support can increase the likelihood of success in breaking addictive patterns.

Highlights

Dopamine modulates motivation, energy, mindset, and feelings of accomplishment, making it a key factor in our daily mood and drive.

Video games can increase dopamine levels between 75% and 300% above baseline, higher than nicotine, sex, or even cocaine.

Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman emphasizes the powerful role of dopamine in addiction, behavior, and brain development.

The brain is wired to seek repeated dopamine highs, leading to addictive behaviors such as video game overuse.

Dopamine affects more than pleasure; it is responsible for motivation, drive, craving, and even time perception.

Video games, particularly high-intensity and fast-paced ones, can trigger significant dopamine spikes due to their novelty and challenge.

Addiction is described as a 'progressive narrowing' of activities that bring pleasure, reducing interest in other areas of life like school, relationships, and well-being.

Over time, excessive video gaming can lead to diminished dopamine release from the activity itself, potentially resulting in depression.

Novelty plays a key role in video game dopamine release, with more intense and constantly updating games providing greater dopamine spikes.

Gaming addiction can cause a severe decline in life quality by making other activities seem uninteresting compared to the dopamine-driven excitement of gaming.

Huberman suggests a 'dopamine detox' to reset the brain's reward system by abstaining from addictive activities like video games and social media.

Resetting dopamine levels can improve mood, concentration, and overall well-being, as shown by individuals successfully completing detox programs.

Setting realistic, challenging goals is crucial to overcoming gaming addiction, with gradual progress being more effective than overwhelming changes.

Huberman advises starting small and gradually increasing efforts in non-gaming activities, such as reading or exercising, to regain balance.

Accountability is critical for overcoming gaming addiction, whether through friends, family, or community support from others facing the same challenge.

Transcripts

so let's talk about dopamine dopamine

has everything to do with how you feel

right now as you're listening to this it

has everything to do with how you will

feel an hour from now has everything to

do with your level of motivation and

your level of desire and your

willingness to push through effort it

modulates a bunch of things all at once

that's why it's so powerful at shifting

not just our levels of energy but also

our mindset also our feelings of whether

or not we can or cannot accomplish

something

I have a million dollar question for you

in which activity does dopamine increase

above Baseline the most nicotine sex

chocolate

or video games most of you probably

picked sex or nicotine but in reality

video games have a higher potential for

above normal dopamine increase according

to neuroscientist Andrew huberman who is

best known for his work on Behavioral

Sciences including human behavior

addiction neuropsychology and brain

development while nicotine and sex

increased dopamine 100 above Baseline

and chocolate 55 video games can range

between 75 and 300 percent to understand

how much dopamine that actually is well

cocaine is 225 percent imagine that at

the highest level of Engagement gaming

can produce more dopamine than even

having sex or doing cocaine now I know

what you're thinking that sounds a bit

crazy and personally I prefer to avoid

comparing things like video games to

drugs and alcohol which I'll share why

later in the video but for now if you

want to understand the Neuroscience of

video games and addiction including ways

to fix it then according to Andrew

huberman you're in luck

imagine it's your first time playing a

video game you turn on your PC and jump

into the game the first few games are

not that fun as you were trying to

figure out how to control your character

and also follow what's happening on the

screen at first it's too overwhelming

however when you actually do something

like perform that combo or do something

without looking at your controller you

feel awesome you keep playing to get

more of that awesomeness feeling and

then you play more and more why why

don't you just enjoy that feeling one

time and then move on well it's because

our brains are not designed to enjoy

stuff as a one-time experience now I can

blabber on about what dopamine is but I

think I'll let the master do the talking

so let's talk about dopamine the way

that your body uses dopamine is to have

a baseline level of dopamine meaning an

amount of dopamine that's circulating in

your brain and body all the time and

that turns out to be important for how

you feel generally whether or not you're

in a good mood motivated Etc and you

also can experience peaks in dopamine

above Baseline when you experience

something or you crave something

really desirable really exciting to you

very pleasurable what happens afterwards

is your Baseline level of dopamine drops

okay so these peaks in dopamine they

influence how much dopamine will

generally be circulating afterward and

you might think oh a big peak in

dopamine after that I'm going to feel

even better because I just had this

great event not the case what actually

happens is that your Baseline level of

dopamine drops dopamine has everything

to do with how you feel right now as

you're listening to this it has

everything to do with how you will feel

an hour from now has everything to do

with your level of motivation and your

level of desire and your willingness to

push through effort if ever you've

interacted with somebody who just

doesn't seem to have any Drive they've

given up or if you've interacted with

somebody who seems to have endless drive

and energy what you are looking at there

in those two circumstances is without

question a difference in the level of

dopamine circulating in their system

dopamine is what we call a

neuromodulator neuromodulators are

different than neurotransmitters

neurotransmitters are involved in the

dialogue between neurons nerve cells and

neurotransmitters tend to mediate local

communication just imagine two people

talking to one another at a concert

communication between them is analogous

to the communication carried out by

neurotransmitters whereas

neuromodulators influence the

communication of many neurons imagine a

bunch of people dancing where it's a

coordinated dance involving 10 or 20 or

hundreds of people

neuromodulators are coordinating that

dance in the nervous system what this

means is that dopamine release changes

the probability that certain neural

circuits will be active other neural

circuits will be inactive okay so it

modulates a bunch of things all at once

and that's why it's so powerful at

shifting not just our levels of energy

but also our mindset also our feelings

of whether or not we can or cannot

accomplish something it is not just

responsible for pleasure it is

responsible for motivation and drive

live primarily at the psychological

level also for craving those three

things are sort of the same motivation

driving craving it also controls time

perception okay that's cool and all but

let's get into what role video games

play in dopamine Neuroscience people

will play a video game they love it it's

super exciting to them and then they'll

keep playing and playing and playing

and either one of two things happens

typically both

first of all I always say addiction is a

progressive narrowing of the things that

bring you pleasure so oftentimes what

will happen is the person only has

excitement and can achieve dopamine

release

to the same extent doing that behavior

and not other behaviors and so they

start losing interest in school they

start losing interest in relationships

they start losing interest in Fitness

and well-being and depletes their life

and eventually what typically happens is

they will stop getting dopamine released

from that activity as well and then they

drop into a pretty serious depression

and this can get very severe and people

have commit suicide from these sorts of

patterns of activity that's the Bare

Basics of how a gaming addiction can

come about and if you want to learn more

about the Neuroscience of a brain on

video games then check out my video on

gaming and the Brain but Andrew human

adds a few points that go deeper

remember how according to Andrew

huberman playing video games could be

more of a motivation than having sex

smoking or even doing hard drugs like

cocaine the percentages were 75 to 300

and that essentially means that the more

intense and stimulating a video game is

the higher dopamine release there is

this is what Andrew hewman calls novelty

as an element in video game engagement

video games especially video games that

have a very high update speed where

there's novel territory all the time

novelty is a bit stimulus of dopamine

those can release dopamine somewhere

between nicotine and cocaine so very

high levels of dopamine release so

playing a video game like abzu where the

game pretty much plays itself and is

more like watching a movie could be

considered as low novelty engagement on

the other hand playing late levels of

the game risks of rain two could be more

of that high novelty that Andrew human

talked about another aspect of the

danger of video games that Andrew Hooman

points out is the neglect of other

Hobbies gaming is super exciting and

everything else is boring so you lose

interest in school work Sports

relationships Fitness hygiene other

hobbies and even your own well-being

pretty much when you become addicted to

gaming your quality life decreases

significantly and it's because your

brain only finds gaming to be exciting

just think about it why would your brain

choose less stimulating and more

difficult activities like working your

job doing your homework going out with

friends doing chores or shooting a

YouTube video like this our Basic

Instincts always choose the most

gratifying short-term option if you want

to overcome a lot of problems in your

life you have to turn on your

Consciousness in order to use the higher

functioning ability of the human brain

planning for the future and the long

term so here's some tips by Andrew human

to overcome a video game addiction first

try a video game detox you have probably

heard of a dopamine detox or abstaining

from an addictive activity is a basic

step towards recovery and that's because

it works as mentioned by Andrew human

addiction is a progressive narrowing of

the things that bring you pleasure where

a person only has excitement and can

achieve dopamine release to the same

extent doing that behavior and not other

behaviors some of you might be asking

what should I do if I experience a drop

in my Baseline level of dopamine because

of Engagement with some activity or some

substance that led to Big Peaks

just to put some color and example on

this a few episodes ago I talked about a

friend who have known a long time said

actually the child of a friend who

has basically become addicted to video

games he decided actually after seeing

that episode with Anna to do a 30-day

complete fast from phone from video

games and from social media of all kinds

he's now at day 29 he's really

accomplished this

not incidentally his levels of

concentration his overall mood are up

he's doing far far better

what he did is hard in particular the

first 14 days is really hard but the way

that you replenish the releasable pool

of dopamine is to not engage in these

dopaminergic

seeking behaviors because remember

typically people arrive at a place where

they want to stop engaging in these

behaviors or ingesting substances when

that dopamine is depleted when they're

not getting the same lift doing a video

game detox will reset your dopamine

levels and you can begin enjoying other

stuff other than gaming we've seen this

time and time again in our community on

game quitters over the last decade we've

seen hundreds and thousands of people

take a dopamine detox or a video game

detox and report that there are lives

improved significantly this is

especially important for people who have

an addiction or a gaming problem of some

kind now to find out if that's you you

can head over to gamecores.com and take

the quiz on the home page next set

realistic goals and take small steps

forward so here we're talking about goal

setting what we're saying is set goals

that are realistic but that aren't so

realistic that they're easy the goals

need to be realistic and truly

challenging don't set goals that are so

challenging and so lofty that they crash

that blood pressure system in the other

direction and make you or anyone feel

unmotivated if you have a bad video game

addiction perhaps it's not such a good

idea to overwhelm yourself some people

do better by just going cold turkey and

other people do better by reducing a bit

over time understand yourself and if you

are someone who does better with

reducing then start reducing gradually a

little bit each day now if you're

someone who has gone cold turkey and

done a detox then taking small steps

forward might look like

starting to read for 15 minutes and then

30 minutes and then an hour and doing

that slowly but surely the key is to

gradually but consistently improve

instead of trying to do everything at

once and then crashing and burning

because you didn't take your challenges

or weaknesses and progress into

consideration for some people not gaming

for even a few days can be such a big

deal however for others not so much the

important thing is to set your goals to

be realistic but also challenging and

not too easy the challenges where your

growth lies and so again I just

encourage you if you're curious go over

the gamecores.com and take the quiz on

the home page it will ask you a set of

nine different questions to determine

the severity whether not a problem a bit

of a problem or a problem with gaming

finally you want to have accountability

how do I access this alertness well

there are a number of ways some people

use some pretty elaborate psychological

gymnastics they will tell people that

they're going to do so something and

create some accountability that could be

really good so accountability perhaps

it's your close friends casual friends

or family that could support you and

hold you accountable to your gaming

habits that's one way but arguably a

better way is to have accountability

from people who are going through the

same thing as you that's why I urge you

to join our free Discord community on

game queries and get rid of your gaming

problem once and for all the links for

that are in the description and thanks

to Andrew human for all of his great

work and I look forward to sharing more

of his content soon now if you're

curious if you should play video games

after your detox then check out this

video from me from uh well quite a while

ago okay