A very interesting article that describes the difference between how our brain responds to wanting versus how it responds to liking.

In a series of experiments, he and other researchers have been able to tease apart that the mammalian brain has separate systems for what Berridge calls wanting and liking.

Wanting is Berridge’s equivalent for Panksepp’s seeking system. It is the liking system that Berridge believes is the brain’s reward center. When we experience pleasure, it is our own opioid system, rather than our dopamine system, that is being stimulated. This is why the opiate drugs induce a kind of blissful stupor so different from the animating effect of cocaine and amphetamines. Wanting and liking are complementary. The former catalyzes us to action; the latter brings us to a satisfied pause. Seeking needs to be turned off, if even for a little while, so that the system does not run in an endless loop. When we get the object of our desire (be it a Twinkie or a sexual partner), we engage in consummatory acts that Panksepp says reduce arousal in the brain and temporarily, at least, inhibit our urge to seek.

Make a lot of sense.  What’s even more interesting is that this desire to constantly seek isn’t attached to the reward center.  We never seek seek seek and then feel sated.  Seeking can easily turn into an endless loop if the rewards of seeking are small (as they are with dings from email, Twitter, etc) and random (as they are with dings from email, Twitter, etc).  Small random rewards, like being able to eat just one piece of popcorn every 3-5 minutes, will drive someone crazy, right?

Of course, this is nothing new, but I like the context of it.  I like the word “seeking” to describe the process.  I’m not so sure we have to wrap it all up in an ominous warning about the state of our never-ending searches for scraps of nothing.  I think it’s just as interesting to think about how much this desire to seek out new things gives us reason to live, to break out of ruts, to be open for variety and surprises.

Long live seeking.

This entry was posted by Buster on Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 at 12:21 am. It is filed under Responses. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.