I dislike these kinds of generalizations (I think I'm especially allergic to words like "all" in these kinds of statements.), but Russell Brand has put his finger on something here: All addicts, regardless of the substance or their social status share a consistent and obvious symptom; they’re not quite present when you talk to them. … Continue reading Looking through you

I've posted before about the role of salience in addiction. This is a great illustration:

In attempting to explain attention and ADHD, Jonah Lehrer explains dopamine's salience function: But the caricature of dopamine as simply the chemical of hedonism is woefully incomplete. For instance, studies have shown that the dopamine reward pathway is also extremely active when people are forced to eat something disgusting, or when a subject is gasping … Continue reading Stuck on … dopamine

An interesting explanation of dopamine's function--distinguishing drive and motivation from pleasure and reward: In the emerging view, discussed in part at the Society for Neuroscience meeting last week in Chicago, dopamine is less about pleasure and reward than about drive and motivation, about figuring out what you have to do to survive and then doing … Continue reading Almost impossible to ignore