Summary of Huberman Lab Podcast Episode: Boost Productivity: Harness Dopamine for Effort Optimization | Huberman Lab
Podcast: Huberman Lab
11 min. read
— Description —
Discover how the dopamine system influences our pursuit of goals, both healthy and unhealthy Learn how exposure to high dopamine triggers can lower baseline levels over time Explore the three fundamentals of the dopamine system and understand how addictions narrow our sources of pleasure
Find out how to protect the enjoyment of activities by avoiding excessive dopamine-releasing behaviors Plus, uncover a unique strategy to overcome procrastination by steepening the trough and returning to baseline dopamine faster.
Boost Productivity: Harness Dopamine for Effort Optimization | Huberman Lab
Table of contents
Key Takeaways
- The dopamine system doesn’t care about the specific goal or pursuit – it’s about pursuing anything, healthy or not
- If we expose regularly expose ourselves to things that trigger high levels of dopamine release, we will lower our baseline levels of dopamine over time
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From a thought to action: desire for things increases dopamine, level of dopamine drops below baseline, drop below baseline triggers motivation to bring dopamine level back up by pursuing the thing you wanted in the first place
- You want to relieve the pain of not having that thing
- Three fundamentals of the dopamine system drive you toward learning: (1) desire – I want that; (2) motivation – drives you toward action; (3) reward or lack of reward
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Addictions are the progressive narrowing of things that give us pleasure
- “It’s both the duration between desire and effect (rewarding property of dopamine that are experienced) that teach the system to want and expect short gaps, which makes it hard to pursue things that take longer.” – Dr. Andew Huberman
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If you enjoy an activity, protect that feeling by making sure you don’t attach reward or other dopamine-releasing behaviors to that behavior
- If you stack too many dopamine-releasing things to something you already enjoy, you may experience less interest/desire/motivation to do that thing
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To overcome procrastination: figure out something that sucks (but is safe) to steepen the trough which will bring you back to baseline dopamine faster
- For example cold shower/water immersion – this will remind your brain you can do hard things
Introduction
- Dr. Andrew Huberman, Ph.D. is a Professor of Neurobiology and Ophthalmology at Stanford University School of Medicine. His lab focuses on neural regeneration, neuroplasticity, and brain states such as stress, focus, fear, and optimal performance.
- In this episode of the Huberman Lab Podcast, dives into dopamine and how to leverage the dopamine system to overcome procrastination and optimize effort. He breaks down behavioral, cognitive, nutrition-based, and supplement-based tools and protocols, how to boost dopamine levels, pursue and maintain a “growth mindset” and much more!
- Host: Andrew Huberman (@hubermanlab)
What Is Dopamine?
- Dopamine: neuromodulator that modulates or changes other cells (neurons)
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Five circuits in the brain use dopamine as a primary neuromodulator:
- (1) nigrostriatal pathway – responsible for initiation and suppression movement;(2) mesolimbic pathway – responsible for primitive, basic functions for survival;(3) mesocortical pathway – resides behind forehead (prefrontal cortex) and is involved in everything from understanding context to decision making;(4) tuberoinfundibular involved in the output of pituitary gland and related hormones;
- (5) retinal circuit responsible for adapting the light system
- The dopamine system doesn’t care about the specific goal or pursuit – it’s about pursuing anything, healthy or not
- Dopamine is not just about pleasure: it’s the universal currency of foraging and seeking things that will provide sustenance and pleasure in the short term and extend life in the long term
- Understanding the recent dopamine system helps us predict whether we will be motivated in the next hours, days, or weeks
Dopamine Release
- Dopamine is not just released when we get the reward, it’s released in anticipation of getting the thing we want – this triggers movement
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Dopamine levels vary through baseline, peaks, and troughs
- Peaks are triggered by behaviors, compounds, substances, food, etc.
- Troughs are when dopamine levels do below baseline
- The peaks and baseline are not independent: for every peak, there’s a trough
- We all have a dopamine setpoint: if we continue to participate in dopamine-stimulating activities, eventually we won’t experience the same joy from those behaviors
- Pleasure-pain balance is based on how much dopamine is there and how much is ready to be released into the system
- If you do something which releases huge levels of dopamine, pleasure drops (sometimes below baseline) because there isn’t enough dopamine to release after
- Dopamine levels can drop in imperceptible ways until it reaches a threshold of low dopamine, and we don’t get pleasure from anything anymore
Dynamics Of Dopamine Release
- When we pursue something, we’re always looking for clues to tell us whether we’re on the right path to achieve that thing
- The cue that we are likely to get what we want increases dopamine; subconsciously there’s a signal that we’re on the right path
- The peak in dopamine will vary based on how satisfying that thing turns out to be
- Dopamine subconsciously parses between wanting and getting: dopamine system doesn’t just regulate the height of the peak at the beginning, it’s also taking into account everything that’s happening in between and funneling into reward-prediction error
- Dopamine learns the contingencies between desire, drive, and motivation
Addiction
- There’s been an 80% increase in alcohol use disorder among women in the past 30 years
- Addiction: progressive narrowing of things that give us pleasure
- The hallmark of any addictive behavior is that it releases dopamine at high levels
- The addictive process is the same, regardless of whether you’re addicting to gambling, drugs, sex, etc.
- Once you’ve become addicted to anything, you’re more vulnerable to addiction to anything
- People with severe addiction suffer from a lack of homeostasis in the pleasure-pain balance
- Addiction is like having an itch and being told you can’t scratch it – it’s always there and maybe you’ll scratch it in your sleep because of an unconscious opportunity
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“It’s both the duration between desire and effect (rewarding property of dopamine that are experienced) that teach the system to want and expect short gaps, which makes it hard to pursue things that take longer.” – Dr. Andrew Huberman
- The peak comes up very fast after desire, then drops steeply below the baseline
- Rates of dopamine firing by behavior or drug (for context, neurons fire at a rate of 3-4/second releasing dopamine): food – doubles in anticipation of food; nicotine – 150% increase in the rate of dopamine firing; cocaine – increases dopamine output by 1000%; methamphetamine – increases by 1000% – 10,000%; sex (often 4-5x increase), video games, and caffeine vary based on whether you are adapted or maladapted
- Reset of dopamine system from unhealthy behavior involves 30 days of complete abstinence – tapering off may be required depending on the severity of the addiction
Binding Behaviors
- Binding behaviors: binding of behavior around particular substance use or addiction in space and/or time – for example, only engaging in that behavior in a particular environment or context-appropriate setting
- Binding behaviors are all about clamping or directing when the engagement of dopamine-releasing behavior will occur
- The prefrontal cortex gets trained to understand that certain things (like food, video games, sex) are ok if they’re done or consumed in certain amounts or certain contexts
Optimizing Baseline Levels Of Dopamine
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Increasing baseline levels of dopamine is defined as anything that increases dopamine for more than one hour
- For reference, increases in dopamine with drugs in minutes to hours which contribute to addictive patterns
- Basics of baseline dopamine: sufficient quality sleep, Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR), nutrition (especially tyrosine), morning sunlight, exercise/movement daily or near-daily
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Cold water exposure increases baseline levels of dopamine for 2-5 hours – try an ice bath, cold plunge, cold shower
- The water should be cold enough you want to get out
- Method & duration: the colder the water, the shorter the exposure – ideal cold temperature is between 32-55 degrees Fahrenheit; anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes
- Don’t use cold immersion after strength & hypertrophy training
- You can also try warm water (60 degrees Fahrenheit) up to the neck for 45-60 minutes
- Physician prescribed: Ritalin, Adderall, and modafinil all increase dopamine for hours
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Over-the-counter compounds: l-tyrosine (take if baseline levels of dopamine are reduced or you need to increase dopamine for cognitive function during stress), mucuna pruriens (99% L-dopa; be careful, it may lean towards increasing peak not baseline)
- Remember, try single compound formulas so you can experiment with what works Be careful with the dose – as little as 500mg of L-tyrosine 30-60 minutes before a cognitive task can increase baseline dopamine
- Pay attention to whether you crash after and adjust the dose accordingly
- Bad strategy: don’t stack and combine different behaviors to chase peak again and again – just wait, remember the dopamine system resets
Pleasure-Pain Balance
- There are two sides to pleasure: (1) seeking out high, euphoria – and (2) seeking experiences that dull or avoid pain
- Pleasure and pain are co-located in the brain and work like a balance, tipping inversely
- We all have a dopamine setpoint: if we continue to participate in dopamine-stimulating activities, eventually we won’t experience the same joy from those behaviors
- Pleasure-pain balance is based on how much dopamine is there and how much is ready to be released into the system
- If you do something which releases huge levels of dopamine, pleasure drops because there isn’t enough dopamine to release after
- Dopamine levels can drop in imperceptible ways until it reaches a threshold of low dopamine, and we don’t get pleasure from anything anymore
Dopamine & The Reward-Prediction Error
- Remember, the trough is a dip of dopamine levels below the baseline
- Dopamine circuitry takes time (up to days) to replenish – fight the urge to chase the next rush
- If you are rewarded for an activity you already like, you will enjoy that activity more; if the reward is removed, there’s a drop in the time you spend doing that activity
- Possibility is deeply woven into the dopamine system
- In the neurological system, surprise, novelty, motivation, and reward release dopamine
- Reward-prediction error = actual amount of dopamine released in response to something – the amount expected
- If you tell a child they “might” have ice cream later, you’re effectively telling the dopamine they will have ice cream – if it doesn’t happen, there’s a big dopamine crash
- Understanding the reward-prediction error allows us to make better decisions about how far out in the future to place milestones and assess progress
- Pick an interval at which you will assess progress & give yourself a reward
- Leverage dopamine release on a schedule of rewards that you can do consistently
- Dopamine interacts with the visual system bidirectionally: using our visual system in a particular way recruits chemicals (like dopamine) to put us in a state of readiness and pursuit – and vice versa
- Protect the activities you enjoy! If you are motivated enough to engage in some sort of activity (exercise, music, etc.) – avoid stacking dopamine-releasing rewards or you will find yourself less interested/unmotivated to do that thing you once loved
Overcoming Procrastination
- “When friction becomes the reward, you can pass from an idea and a goal no matter how daunting, to successful completion of that goal while experiencing what will essentially feel like pleasure the entire time.” – Dr. Andrew Huberman
- Make effort the reward
- Growth mindset: a perspective that you can’t do something yet but will be able to
- Remember: a peak in dopamine is followed by a trough in dopamine; that trough is experienced as pain, or wanting for a specific state you want to achieve – the trough is a motivation for action
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When we are unmotivated or procrastinating, we engage in activities that replace what we are supposed to do
- This is a mild form of addiction replacement – it gives you a sense of accomplishment
- It’s unlikely procrastination will dissipate by itself
- Then, anxiety is used to trigger the completion of the activity we should’ve been doing in the first place
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Overcoming procrastination: do something harder/more effortful than the state you’re in; the dopamine system works according to what feels hard at the moment
- For example, instead of cleaning the house to avoid writing a paper – engage in something like a cold shower or cold immersion
- Meditation for 5-10 minutes is effortful and can help you get over the hump of procrastination
- Tip: have a list of a few activities you can do to get over procrastination – you want to force your body and mind to steepen through to return to baseline dopamine faster
Articles, Books & Other Resources
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Articles
- Pain modulates dopamine neurons via a spinal–parabrachial–mesencephalic circuit (Nature Neuroscience)
- Dopamine, Updated: Reward Prediction Error and Beyond (Current Opinion in Neurobiology)
- Human physiological responses to immersion into water of different temperatures (European Journal of Applied Physiology)
- Effect of tyrosine on cognitive function and blood pressure under stress (Brain Research Bulletin)
- Tyrosine Improves Working Memory in a Multitasking Environment (Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior)
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Book
- Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence (by Dr. Anna Lembke)
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Other Resources
- Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR)