Rethinking Dopamine

I love my dopamine earrings from Made with Molecules. Dopamine is released when we get a good reward, and together with my necklace of seratonin (the "molecule of happiness"), they allude to my love of positive psychology, the work that I do to help people overcome depression and anxiety, to live happier lives.

Only it turns out that our understanding of dopamine has been incomplete, possibly wrong.

Researchers have linked dopamine to motivation (which, by definition, happens before an act) and delinking it from the popularly accepted view that it's all about reward (after an act).

Mercè Correa (co-author of article in Neuron) explains:

"It was believed that dopamine regulated pleasure and reward and that we release it when we obtain something that satisfies us, but in fact the latest scientific evidence shows that this neurotransmitter acts before that, it actually encourages us to act. In other words, dopamine is released in order to achieve something good or to avoid something evil."

Not just dopamine levels, but also dopamine location. 

Reference articles: Neuron, Journal of Neuroscience, Vanderbilt University, WebMD, ScienceDaily