I was reading a book about addiction and wondered why does dopamine make us feel good. I understood the mechanism (largely speaking), dopamine latches unto a receptor and that we perceive as feel-good-stuff, but why? Why does dopamine, getting connected to a receptor, make us feel that way?
I know that we haven’t figured completely how the brain works, so maybe we don’t know why it does that, but still
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Dopamine is a neurotransmitter which means that it is part of the forwarding of signals from one neuron’s ending, the synapse, to the next neuron’s dendrits. There is a gap between them called synaptic cleft which uses chemical messengers (neurotransmitters) instead of the neuron’s regular signal forwarding through the electric membrane potential. The receptors you are mentioning are on the post-synaptic membrane of the next cell and regulate the ion channels which change the electric potential of the membrane by letting ions in or out.
**You can see that there is a translation from the chemical to the electric signal happening.** In other words, without dopamine, that signal wouldn’t be forwarded in the same way. Dopamine allows for easier transmission of signals in areas of the brain important for motivation and movement for instance. It could be described as an overstimulation compared to the regular state.
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