Dopamine and the anticipation of pleasure?

[Elinisti]

I was watching Sapolsky speak about the Science of Pleasure and now I am confused

[video=youtube_share;axrywDP9Ii0]http://youtu.be/axrywDP9Ii0[/video]

If dopamine spikes when you are anticipating pleasure then what (neurotransmitter?) generates the pleasure then? Or could the pleasure be caused simply by a relief that the horrible anticipation is over?

 

[Epsilon Alpha]

It's a complex mash up of so many different neurotransmitters and other processes. Glutamate release is majorly implicated in the downstream process though if animal motor activity is any implication of human subjectivity /ELI5

 

[sekio]

"Simple" answer: there is no one neurotransmitter that can be definitively declared to be responsible for "pleasure".
My wild ass guess is that in the case of physical extertion, endorphine release plays the role of 'reward'. But of course mu-agonism alone will not always be euphoric....

 

[a tree]

I always thougt that endorphines lead to a dopamine release.

 

[ebola?]

I'd be surprised if we find a particular neurotransmitter implicated in "pleasure". Yes, the mesolimbic dopamine circuit seems to activate in cases of motivating anticipation (and indeed, optimism and anticipation is often as pleasurable as actually possession of reward).

My guess would be that pleasure usually manifests as some global coordination of transmission, centered on cross-communication between limbic areas and pre-frontal cortices. Because this is a more global, emergent configuration, there are likely many interplays of neurotransmitters that could yield pleasure.

ebola

 

[MollyFein74]

Yes I believe it is not just dopamine that creates the pleasure. IIRC, dopamine can affect as a pleasure aswell as an anticipation neurotransmitter - this depends where in the brain it is released different parts of teh dopamine circuit have different effects. I also read that norepiniphrine, again in certain parts of the brain when released can create antiicpation, which is then stopped and dopamine release occurs to give that relieved pleasure feeling.

 

[OnCloud9]

Its also known that levels of serotonin are related to dopamine regulation in the brain.