Pleasure & pain, building blocks of emotion

7 important questions on Pleasure & pain, building blocks of emotion

What were early findings on dopamine and their interpretations?

- Released in response to food, drugs, sex, social interaction
- Blocking dopamine receptors reduces reward-seeking behavior (incl brain self-stimulation)
- Destruction of dopamine pathways abolishes reward-seeking behavior (animals die of starvation)

Interpretation 1: Dopamine itself stimulates the "pleasure center"
Interpretation 2: Dopamine motivates to orient and move to the reward    
Interpretation 3: Dopamine enables learning which stimuli are pleasurable

Does dopamine control wanting or liking? And how?

Wanting
dopamine affects incentive salience of reward:
- Reducing dopamine transmission (eg. Blocking dopamine production, its receptors, or destroying dopamine neurons) reduces effort and approach behavior, but not lip licking
- More dopamine in mutant mice (DAT knockdown)increases wanting but not liking

Dopamine controls wanting, not liking

What are the hedonic hotspots in the (rat) brain? How did they find this

- Injection of enkephalin (DAMGO) to activate μ-opioid receptors
- Increase of liking respons to sucrose
        - medial shell of nucleus accumbens        - ventral pallidum (destruction turns into disliking)
  • Higher grades + faster learning
  • Never study anything twice
  • 100% sure, 100% understanding
Discover Study Smart

Explain how the orbitofrontal cortex is a pleasure center regarding food

Kringelbach et al (2003)
Subjective pleasantness and satiety
- subjects did not eat for 6hrs prior to fMRI scanning
- PRE: in scanner, fed with chocolate milk and tomato juice. (roll stimulus around on the tongue, swallow after 10 sec)
- LUNCH: subjects out of scanner eat one liquid of choice until satiety
- POST: in scanner, fed with chocolate milk and tomato juice

Pleasantness ratings: correlation with OFC activity

OFC activity modulated by selective satiety
--> tracks pleasure

Explain how the orbitofrontal cortex is a pleasure center regarding orgasms

Partnered stimulation protocol

- Manual genital stimulation by partner while in the scanner
- rest: resting state
- Fake orgasm: clitoral stimulation and orgasm like movement
- Stimulation: clitoral stimulation without orgasm and movement
- Orgasm: self-reported orgasm induced by clitoral stimulation
- Rectal pressure as objective measure of orgasm

Orbitofrontal rCBF PET: strong decrease for succesful orgasm 
(men show similar activity)

What is the golden standard in placebo controlled trials?

Do not isolate the genuine effect of the drug!

What are Tonic and Phasic dopamine systems? And what are they for>

Balancing pleasure-seeking and pain-avoidance

Tonic dopamine: steady-state signal in extracellular space
--> Regulates responsiveness of phasic dopamine system
Phasic dopamine: response to salient environmental stimuli
--> motivation and exploration

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

  • A unique study and practice tool
  • Never study anything twice again
  • Get the grades you hope for
  • 100% sure, 100% understanding
Remember faster, study better. Scientifically proven.
Trustpilot Logo