What Role Does Dopamine Play in Addiction?

Dopamine plays a major role in addiction. Nora Volkow, MD, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health, explains why, in this video.

Transcript

00:00

First of all, the dopamine system is modulating not just reward, but motivation, drive,

00:06

frontal cognition. But then there was the transformative finding, as it relates to reward, was the recognition

00:14

that the dopamine increases when you encounter an unexpected reward.

00:20

But when that reward is repeatedly administered, then you stop signaling-- the dopamine system stops signaling

00:29

when you consume the reward. But is then activated when there is a stimuli that predicts that you're

00:36

going to get that reward. And that is at the essence of what we call conditioning. And that's exactly what drugs are doing.

00:43

They are triggering that learning process that we call conditioning, by which the brain learns

00:49

to expect the reward when it's associated with stimuli, including the environment, time, emotions, that in the past

00:58

have preceded the consumption of the drug. And that is a fundamental drive by which

01:04

people become addicted. And that is, again, engaged by the dopamine system.