<p>Like many topics in neuroscience, this is a controversial subject.  While dopamine is very popular among the public as a mechanism for pleasure, recent research challenges that view and has started to tease apart pleasure from motivation, finding a distinction in dopamine.</p>

<p>John Salamone's <a href="http://today.uconn.edu/blog/2012/11/uconn-researcher-dopamine-not-about-pleasure-anymore/" rel="nofollow">opinion</a>:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Low levels of dopamine make people and other animals less likely to work for things, so it has more to do with motivation and cost/benefit analyses than pleasure itself.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>and his peer reviewed research:</p>

<p>Salamone, John D. and Correa, Merc. (2012).  <a href="http://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273%2812%2900941-5" rel="nofollow">The Mysterious Motivational Functions of Mesolimbic Dopamine</a>.  Neuron, 76:3, pp.470 - 485.</p>

<p>It's more likely that the experience of pleasure is a distributed circuit phenomena, not down to any one neurotransmitter:</p>

<p>Smith, Kyle S.; Mahler, Stephen V.; Peciña, Susana; Berridge, Kent C.
Kringelbach, Morten L. (Ed); Berridge, Kent C. (Ed), (2010). <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2009-13385-001" rel="nofollow">Pleasures of the brain</a>. , (pp. 27-49). New York, NY, US: Oxford University Press, viii, 343 pp.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-14T00:38:57.123Z
I took intro psych with Salamone, he's a phenomenal lecturer.  He showed us a video of rats in a Skinner box pressing levers to the tune of "Firestarter" by Prodigy.
Chuck Sherrington
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-13T18:44:30.060Z
2014-01-14T00:38:31.910Z
2014-01-14T00:38:31.910Z
Keegan Keplinger
<p>I am wondering if a person would experience an increase in the level of dopamine while doing something she/he enjoys such as playing guitar or reading a book. And what are some other neurotransmitter that would be released?</p>

<neuroscience><cognitive-neuroscience>
Does a person experience release of dopamine while doing something she/he enjoys?
Archy Will He 何魏奇
# Does a person experience release of dopamine while doing something she/he enjoys?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-01-13)

I am wondering if a person would experience an increase in the level of dopamine while doing something she/he enjoys such as playing guitar or reading a book. And what are some other neurotransmitter that would be released?

**Tags:** neuroscience, cognitive-neuroscience


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2014-01-13. Score: 7 | Accepted answer

Like many topics in neuroscience, this is a controversial subject. While dopamine is very popular among the public as a mechanism for pleasure, recent research challenges that view and has started to tease apart pleasure from motivation, finding a distinction in dopamine.

John Salamone's [opinion](http://today.uconn.edu/blog/2012/11/uconn-researcher-dopamine-not-about-pleasure-anymore/):

> Low levels of dopamine make people and other animals less likely to work for things, so it has more to do with motivation and cost/benefit analyses than pleasure itself.

and his peer reviewed research:

Salamone, John D. and Correa, Merc. (2012). [The Mysterious Motivational Functions of Mesolimbic Dopamine](http://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273%2812%2900941-5). Neuron, 76:3, pp.470 - 485.

It's more likely that the experience of pleasure is a distributed circuit phenomena, not down to any one neurotransmitter:

Smith, Kyle S.; Mahler, Stephen V.; Peciña, Susana; Berridge, Kent C.
Kringelbach, Morten L. (Ed); Berridge, Kent C. (Ed), (2010). [Pleasures of the brain](http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2009-13385-001). , (pp. 27-49). New York, NY, US: Oxford University Press, viii, 343 pp.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: I took intro psych with Salamone, he's a phenomenal lecturer.  He showed us a video of rats in a Skinner box pressing levers to the tune of "Firestarter" by Prodigy.  

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