14 DAY TRIAL // A new research carried out by the University of Copenhagen, analyzes the effects of dopamine imbalances on addictions and mental illnesses like schizophrenia.
Dopamine activates the reward centers inside the brain, so it basically controls the way we behave.
The more dopamine release, the more likely we are to repeat whatever caused that effect and this goes for many things, from eating, to winning a competition and unfortunately to taking drugs.
This is why scientists believe that drug addiction and mental illnesses like schizophrenia can be linked to dopamine imbalances.
But it is rather difficult to see inside the brain of a living human, and, as post doctorate Jakob Kisbye Dreyer of the Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology, University of Copenhagen says, “theoretical neuroscience can easily become very complicated.
“If we try to come up with complete explanations of the way the brain works, we get models that are so complex that they are difficult to test.”
Several physicists, mathematicians and neurobiologists worked together at the dopamine model's predictions, with background support by the observations made in animals models.
Research showed that if an action has a better response than expected, the dopamine level released by the brain will increase, and if the response is worse, the brain stops releasing it.
This kind of mechanism is actually responsible for us repeating actions with high level of dopamine and stop doing things that trigger lower dopamine levels.
Dreyer says that “that's why many see dopamine as a learning signal, [while] others have argued that it is impossible for the dopamine system to react quickly enough to be a part of our learning process.
“It can take a split second to learn something, but a cell that releases dopamine works slowly; if you look at a lighthouse that flashes at a slow frequency, you might not notice right away that the light was turned off.
“Likewise, the arguments against dopamine as an aid to learning have focused on the slow feedback time when you experience something bad, and that it is too slow for the brain to make a connection.
“Our model shows that the collective signal from many cells provides a rapid enough reaction to influence learning.”
Dreyer also admits that the way of thinking depends strongly on the branch of natural science you belong to.
“Our work – and our model – is only possible because even though I am a physicist, I have been able to conduct research at the Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology at the Faculty of Health Sciences.
“As soon as we are certain that the model is correct, we can begin applying it to dopamine-related illnesses such as drug addiction and schizophrenia.”
Jakob Dreyer, Rune Berg and Jørn Hounsgaard, all of the Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology, together with Kjartan Herrik of Lundbeck's Department of Neurophysiology, wrote a paper describing their dopamine model, which appears in the cover article of the current issue of Journal of Neuroscience.