alpqwerty

As i keep on learning in medicine faculty i would like to wrap these opinions of mine in a very simple way. Think of a little boy. Before the day he tasted chocolate for the first time. He doesn't know what it tastes like and maybe he never heard of it. But we eventually reward our children with good tastes. And eventually this boy will taste chocolate. And when he does yes he will feel rewarded. What happens after that? Every other second that passes without the taste of reward seems just empty now that he has discovered a whole new level of pleasure. He will want more now.

Now i would like to explain this a little more scientifically. Reward means an element for pleasure when the expectations are fulfilled. And when the reward is given the ventral tegmental area in our central nervous system transmits the sense of pleasure to the Accumbens nucleus in our brain. Accumbens nucleus is known as the "reward center" of our brain. We feel the pleasure when the neurotransmitter dopamine is released to the neurons in the Accumbens nucleus.

Rewards like chocolate stimulate Accumbens nucleus. Do you know what also stimulates it? Cigarettes, alcohols, drugs... And many other addictive substances. But there is a little difference between a child eating chocolate and a mature person smoking. Because a person knows that smoking is bad. It leads to lung cancer, emphysema, COPD. It can be lethal. So when we know rewarding substance is dangerous the Insular cortex of our brain also joins this stimulation of our reward center. The Insular cortex is the part of the brain that controls the risky behaviors. As you can understand it plays an inhibitor role for the stimulation of the Accumbens nucleus. But what if we tell this kid that chocolate is bad for his health? That it will make him fat and give him sugar complications. It's hard for a child to understand the risks of being unhealthy because every little part of their body is new, flexible, ready for action and fastly regenerating. But if the child really understands the risks of eating chocolate or being unhealthy i am sure that the Insular cortex will start join the crew as an inhibitor as well.

There is a self-stimulation experiment done with monkeys. They learn that if they push on a metal pad food will be given. So one day they don't give any substance to the subjects. Instead of food they just insert a needle to the Accumbens nucleus of the subjects that gives dopamine. So when the subject pushes on the metal pad their reward center is stimulated. And at the end of this very experiment 65 percent of the monkeys keep pushing the metal pad and end the urge of being fed. They even rather stop eating and die. A 10 percent otherwise feels that there must be something wrong going on with being loaded with good rewarding self-stimulation and they stop pushing the pad. Terrific instincts.

We have the same instincts too. Many people still die of addiction but at least some of us do have those instincts. To know when to stop. To see beyond self-stimulation. But for many people rewards turn into unhealthy addictions without these instincts. And of course these instincts must be developed by many parts of the brain. But we certainly do not know what helps our brain developing these instincts. My suggestion is that if we know what to do to create an assistance to our brain about this development we can decrease the ratio of death by addiction. And it is one giant cause of death. Let's start seeing that rewarding is not always good. And to survive we need an ideal level of stimulation. Have a nice day everybody!