eli5 why does our brain like the reward system?
In: Chemistry
Let’s rewind the clock.
You’re a single celled organism that needs to consume specific molecules to turn them into energy to create other molecules to sustain yourself. You’ve already been lucky enough to be part of a chain of mutations that give you some ability to propel yourself.
You get a mutation that makes it easier for you to identify these molecules, and now you instinctively propel yourself towards them.
Now fast forward a billion years through trillions of random mutations and a chain of causation that leads you to the mammalian brain — a brain that has been selected to:
1. See a thing in our environment we need to sustain life, or better, reproduce
2. Instinctively do things to go get that thing
3. Get a rush of chemicals that tell us “going and getting that thing was awesome, let’s do it again”
It was, and perhaps is, the lowest common denominator for getting life to survive.
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