Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Alcohol, dopamine, and emotion
Overview[edit | edit source]
We hear many different things about how alcohol affects our brain but what happens once the whiskey works its way through your bloodstream and hits the control center behind your eyes? In this book chapter, we are going to discuss the role of dopamine in emotional responses to alcohol consumption and chemical messengers that transmit the signals throughout that body that controls emotions.
What is Dialectical theory?[edit | edit source]
Dopamine is an extremely famous neurotransmitter working in the brain. It helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure centers. It enables us to see rewards, and take action to move towards them, and also helps regulate movement and emotional responses. It is usually released during pleasurable situations, which motivates individuals to seek out more pleasurable activities. The pleasurable activities may include food, sex and several drugs, that are stimulants of dopamine release in the brain, in particular in areas such as the nucleus accumbens and prefrontal cortex. Dopamine is also a chemical that controls the central power for all the activities of the brain, and it plays key role behind most of our actions and interpersonal relationships. Dopamine is very important for our brain, the deficiency of dopamine can result in Parkinson’s disease. Low level of dopamine activity in the brain can make individuals prone to addiction.
Dopamine and emotions[edit | edit source]
Emotional states[edit | edit source]
- Reward and associated emotional states
Positive and negative emotions[edit | edit source]
- Overlap between brain substrates of positive and negative emotions
Relapse[edit | edit source]
- Exposure to stress resulting in drug seeking and relapse.
Affect of alcohol on dopamine[edit | edit source]
Alcohol directly affects the brain chemistry by altering the levels of neurotransmitters[edit | edit source]
- Alcohol can affect both Excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters.
- Excitatory neutrotransmitter- Glutamate
- Inhibitory neurotransmitter- GABA (Gamma-Aminobutyric acid)
Stress-Induced Reinstatement of Drug Seeking and Relapse.[edit | edit source]
Dopamine down-regulation[edit | edit source]
- It significantly reduces activity in the dopaminergic reward system and thereby appears to reset the threshold for activating the reward system.
Dopamine theories of addiction[edit | edit source]
Dopamine theory[edit | edit source]
- The dopamine theories of addiction is often referred as "Hedonic model of addiction".
Dopamine-independent Reinforcement of Addictive Drugs[edit | edit source]
- This includes evidence that alcohol and other drugs can produce their reinforcing through mechanisms that are independent of DA (van Ree et al., 1999).
Research[edit | edit source]
- Focusing on the involvement of neurochemicals and neurotransmitters systems to see the reinforcing effects of drug addiction. It includes neurotransmitters such as Opiods , glutamate and GABA ( Gumma-aminobutyric acid),nor-adrenaline, serotonin and cannabinoids (Goodman, 2008)
Quiz questions[edit | edit source]
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Conclusion[edit | edit source]
See also[edit | edit source]
- Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (Wikiversity)
- Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Dopamine and drug addiction (Book chapter, 2017)
- Motivation and emotion/Book/2013/Dopamine and emotion (Book chapter, 2013)
- Drug misuse (Wikiversity)
- Short-term effects of alcohol consumption (Wikipedia)
References[edit | edit source]
NEUROBIOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON ADDICTION. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.nationaldrugstrategy.gov.au/internet/drugstrategy/Publishing.nsf/content/1F49C6D81F2C58F4CA25796600067D60/$File/Neuroscience%20of%20Addiction%20Report.pdf
Salazar, A., Salazar, A., Minchew, M., Ruotolo, L., Salazar, A., & Smigiel, D. et al. (2018). CogniFit's Blog - Health, Brain & Neuroscience. Retrieved from https://blog.cognifit.com/functions-of-dopamine-serve-you/
Sayette, M. (2018). The effects of alcohol on emotion in social drinkers.
T. Kienast. (2018). Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9201/1ab88fb64d2f9a476fbe038d8b1a6fc7daec.pdf
Wacker, J. (2017). Effects of positive emotion, extraversion, and dopamine on cognitive stability-flexibility and frontal EEG asymmetry. Psychophysiology, 55, e12727. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12727
What is Dopamine and What Does it Do?. (2018). Retrieved from https://exploringyourmind.com/what-is-dopamine-and-what-does-it-do
External links[edit | edit source]
For example:
- Headings (Grant State Valley University)
- The importance of structure (skillsyouneed.com)