The Animal Origins of Dopamine, Serotonin, Oxytocin and Endorphin, and Implications for Human Wellbeing
Abstract
Loretta Graziano Breuning
The brain chemicals that make us feel good are inherited from earlier animals. They reward an animal with a good feeling when it sees a way to promote its survival. The function of dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and endorphin in animals illuminates the feelings they produce in humans. Our reward chemicals evolved to do a job, not to flow all the time for no reason. Each spurt is soon metabolized and an organism has to do more to get more. Realistic expectations can improve self-acceptance and wellbeing. A more complete explanation is in my book, Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain your brain to boost your serotonin, dopamine, dxytocin and endorphin levels.
Natural selection built a brain that rewards you with a good feeling when you do something good for your survival. The good feelings of dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and endorphin turn on when that promotes survival action. This is may not seem true in daily life because the mammal brain defines survival in a quirky way. It cares about the survival of your genes, and it relies on neural pathways built in youth. The motivations produced by our reward chemicals are hard to make sense of until you know how they work in animals. Here is a brief introduction to each chemical’s job in the state of nature. The conclusion addresses the quirky neural pathways that stimulate them in modern life.