How To Increase Motivation & Drive

This episode explains the science of motivation and drive. I describe how dopamine-- a chemical we all make in our brain, underlies our desire for and pursuit of our goals, as well as our capacity to move and experience pleasure. I describe how we can leverage specific behaviors, reward schedules and dopamine-prolactin balance to help ensure we can maintain motivation and capacity for pleasure over the long term. I also discuss dopamine in the context of ADHD, craving and addiction, and some absolutely amazing results about specificity of drug effects based purely on belief. For the full show notes, visit hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1 (Athletic Greens): https://athleticgreens.com/huberman LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/huberman Waking Up: https://www.wakingup.com/huberman Momentous: https://www.livemomentous.com/huberman Timestamps (00:00:00) Introduction (00:00:30) Sponsors: AG1, LMNT, Waking Up (00:04:22) Announcement: Spanish Subtitles (00:05:06) Emotions, Addiction & Mindset (00:06:22) Motivation & Movement: The Dopamine Connection (00:07:29) A Double-Edged Dopamine Blade (00:08:56) Dopamine Fundamentals: Precursor to Adrenalin (00:10:15) The Reward Pathway: An Accelerator & A Brake (00:12:10) Motivation= Pleasure Plus Pain (00:14:14) The Dopamine Staircase: Food, Sex, Nicotine, Cocaine, Amphetamine (00:16:15) Subjective Control of Dopamine Release (00:17:40) Social Media and Video Games (00:18:15) Addiction & Dopamine: Progressively Diminishing Returns (00:18:48) Novelty, Sensation-Seeking & Anticipation (00:20:15) Craving: Part Pain, Part Pleasure & Pain Always Prevails (00:23:11) Desire Scales With Pain: The Yearning Function (00:24:43) The Croissant Craving Circuit (00:25:45) “Here and Now” Molecules: Serotonin, Bliss & Raphe Nucleus (00:26:26) In Your Skin Or Out In the World (00:27:25) Cannabinoids Lethargy & Forgetfulness (00:28:15) The Almond Meditation (00:29:30) Drugs That Shift Exteroception Versus Interoception (00:30:36) Emotional Balance, Active & Passive Manipulation (00:32:36) Procrastination: Leveraging Stress, Breathing, Caffeine, L-Tyrosine, Prescription Drugs (00:37:04) When Enough Is Never Enough; How Dopamine Undermines Itself (00:38:58) Dopamine-Prolactin Dynamics: Sex, Reproduction & Refractory Periods (00:40:30) The Coolidge Effect: Novelty-Induced Suppression of Prolactin (00:42:22) Vitamin B6, Zinc As Mild Prolactin Inhibitors (00:43:25) Schizophrenia, Dopamine Hyperactivity and Side Effects of Anti-Dopaminergic Drugs (00:45:08) Prolactin, Post-Satisfaction “Lows” & Extending the Arc of Dopamine (00:48:00) The Chemistry of “I Won, But Now What?” (00:49:00) Healthy Emotional Development: Child and Parent (00:50:03) Never Say “Maybe” (Reward Prediction Error) (00:52:02) Surprise! (00:52:59) Are You Suppressing Your Drive and Motivation By Working Too Late? (00:54:50) Disambiguating Pleasure and Drive: Dopamine Makes Us Anti-Lazy (00:58:00) Beta-Phenylethylamine (PEA), & Acetyl L-Carnitine (01:00:00) Attention Deficit Disorders, Cal Newport Books, Impulsivity & Obesity (01:03:55) Leveraging Dopamine Schedules (01:05:22) Subjective Control of Dopamine and Drug Effects: The “Adderall” Experiment (01:09:03) Caffeine May Protect Dopamine Neurons, Methamphetamine Kills Them (01:10:57) Nicotine: Dopamine, Possible Neuroprotection, Prolactin Increase (01:11:53) Gambling, Intermittent Reinforcement, & Persistent Goal Seeking (Bad and Good) (01:14:14) Intermittent Halting of Celebration; Enjoy Your Wins, But Not All of Them (01:18:38) A Story Example of Intermittent Reward to Maintain Long-Term Drive and Motivation (01:21:25) Corrections & Notes About Spanish Captions & Other Languages Soon (01:24:00) Synthesis & Framework, Zero-Cost Support & A Note About Sponsors Title Card Photo Credit: Mike Blabac Disclaimer

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Huberman Lab discusses neuroscience — how our brain and its connections with the organs of our body control our perceptions, our behaviors, and our health. We also discuss existing and emerging tools for measuring and changing how our nervous system works. Andrew Huberman, Ph.D., is a neuroscientist and tenured professor in the department of neurobiology, and by courtesy, psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford School of Medicine. He has made numerous significant contributions to the fields of brain development, brain function and neural plasticity, which is the ability of our nervous system to rewire and learn new behaviors, skills and cognitive functioning.  Huberman is a McKnight Foundation and Pew Foundation Fellow and was awarded the Cogan Award, given to the scientist making the most significant discoveries in the study of vision, in 2017. His lab’s most recent work focuses on the influence of vision and respiration on human performance and brain states such as fear and courage. He also works on neural regeneration and directs a clinical trial to promote visual restoration in diseases that cause blindness. Huberman is also actively involved in developing tools now in use by the elite military in the U.S. and Canada, athletes, and technology industries to optimize performance in high stress environments, enhance neural plasticity, mitigate stress and optimize sleep.   Work from the Huberman Laboratory at Stanford School of Medicine has been published in top journals including Nature, Science and Cell and has been featured in TIME, BBC, Scientific American, Discover and other top media outlets.  In 2021, Dr. Huberman launched the Huberman Lab podcast. The podcast is frequently ranked in the top 5 of all podcasts globally and is often ranked #1 in the categories of Science, Education, and Health & Fitness.