Science

Rope-a-Dopamine

60 Comments

My eye was caught by a recent newspaper article about what my ears have been up to.

Neuroscientists Robert Zatorre and Valerie Salimpoor wrote in the New York Times about why music gives us pleasure. It turns out that the most emotional moments in music have been shown to release the chemical dopamine in the brain.

cerebral_lobes

That has been known for a while. But there’s more:

“… what may be most interesting here is when this neurotransmitter is released: not only when the music rises to a peak emotional moment, but also several seconds before, during what we might call the anticipation phase.”

So you inherently know when you’re getting to the good part, and the anticipation of that highlight is its own reward. All we have to do is lay back and let the elastic chemicals lift us when the time is right.

I recognize the effect in my own music listening. For instance, this Patti Griffin song is a favorite, and now I see that the dopamine release point is at about 1 minute and 14 seconds in, when the sun comes out.

http://youtu.be/wxYqOze_jiE

Anticipation is powerful in so many other areas as well. For instance, I always enjoy vacations, but my favorite part is the moment just before it begins, when no fun has been had but I have everything to look forward to.

I’ve noticed this about the State Fair in recent years. Thinking about fair food during the week leading up to opening day has become more pleasurable than eating the food, and much, much nicer than digesting it.

When is anticipation as good (or better) than the thing itself?

60 thoughts on “Rope-a-Dopamine”

  1. Good morning. Sitting down to a delicious meal is a pleasure and the anticipation of eating can be as good or better than the eating. This would be especially true of a meal that smells and looks good. An example would be pasta with a tasty tomato sauce covered with shredded parmesan and accompanied by a nice green salad, slices of crusty bread, and a glass of wine. Just the thought of this is almost as good as eating it.

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  2. Great post, Dale. I’ll be keeping an eye out for the anticipation high from now on.

    I find that my anticipation of a chunk of free time usually exceeds the actual enjoyment of said time. I think this is because once I am actually in the ‘free-time zone’, I know that all good things must come to an end, and I can hear the clock ticking….

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  3. Yes, the anticipation of free time is certainly a great thing, MIG. I am retired and I still only seem to be able to anticipate free time without experiencing it. When will I find some free time?

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  4. The first thing that pops into mind is that the reverse is also true
    My xwife was a school teacher, counselor for the longest part of her career and she always reserved Sunday afternoons and evenings for trying to get caught up. Friday afternoon as she got home from her work week sho would begin dreading all that crap she had to deal with on Sunday. I used to give her a lot of flack about it and wondered why she didn’t just do it in Friday so she had a shot at enjoying the weekend. She retired this year she was too exhausted from all the angst in her job. She never felt better when she finished it was like she had just gone 10 rounds in.a Boxing match.
    I on the other hand live pretty much my while life on the come looking forward to the sunshine just around the corner. At 5am when I stir and wonder what today’s blog will be about, what song holly or what quote linda will tie into it I smile thankful for little antics potions. Monthly card games motorcycle rides family get together s summer vacations all stuff that get my dopamine cranked up a notch and Dylan

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    1. tim, I am a little like your first wife. I seem to always have too many things that need to be done. However, some of the things I think I need to do are things I really want to do. What I don’t like is not feeling free to slow down and enjoy doing some my favorite tasks because there are some other not so fun tasks that still need to be done. Even fun jobs are not so much fun if you think you have to hurry up to get them done.

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      1. Actually, I think I am also very optimist because I think that it would be very hard to have much of a life if you didn’t feel that better things are coming when you look at the way things are.

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  5. Thinking about musical anticipation, I am remembering the recent performance of Turandot we attended this spring. The great thing about a well-known opera like that is you can FEEL the anticipation when the tenor starts to sing Nessun Dorma. It’s like the entire house is on a hydraulic lift (and it is over all too soon). Alas, the only YouTube I can find of this aria is sung by Pavarotti (not. a. fan).

    I think Puccini is really good at writing this sort of anticipation. I am now anticipating going to the concert version of La Boheme at Lake Harriet this weekend.

    I’m very partial to Si, mi chiamano Mimi, but I’ll post Anna Netrebko singing Quando me’n vo’ instead, as I think Steve might enjoy watching her sing (myself, I think she looks a bit too athletic to be dying of TB, but let that pass):
    http://youtu.be/m1_BKpgUG4I

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    2. I love Jussi Bjorling’s rendition of Nessun Dorma. Unfortunately the recording quality, even on the digitally remastered version, detracts from it. Placido Domingo’s recording is glorious, I think.

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      2. Just because I can, I will point out that the costume he is wearing around 2:12 is from a Brazilian opera called
        Il Guarany, with Domingo as the chief of the Guarni in question. Lots of feathers.

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        2. Yes, we’ve scrambled our Harriets! Another new phrase coined here on The Trail…

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  6. I worked all of this out many years ago when I was considering what fishing meant to me. My thoughts started by noticing that anticipation was often better than the actual activity (as, for example, the fact that anticipation didn’t include mosquitoes or sunburn). And then I realized that that was two parts of a three-part process. There was fishing: there was the anticipation of fishing, and then there was all the memories of fishing. There are some activities in life where you get to enjoy them three times: in anticipation, in recollection and in the actual doing.

    That led me to think of another activity in life where anticipation and recollection are often better than the thing itself. But I’m not going there. I’m just not.

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    1. I don’t get to fish very often, but I think landing a fish is one of the most satisfying moments of life! To me the anticipation of catching the fish actually equals the moment of catching the fish, especially when one lands the fish after a fight.

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  7. Rise and Shine Baboons–It’s gonna be GREAT!

    As Jim mentioned, anticipation of a good meal is always a dopamine moment for me. Right now Lou and I are starting our plan for the trip to Norway next Spring. Just thinking about that and watching a Rick Steve’s DVD are enough to make me drool in anticipation of travel–then if you combine that anticipation with watching the Scandinavian cooking show on Channel 2 you get double anticipation!

    2 weeks ago an unnamed MN Health Insurance company which owed us a lot of money brought a large check to my door (A Vice President delivered it!) The anticipation of said money was far more satisfying than actually depositing it. As soon as I deposited it, the money flew right back out of the account which is so deflating (the dopamine must be replaced by the stress hormone, cortisol).

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    1. I must add that I am in a state of dopamine-induced anticipation of a Girlfriends Weekend in my hometown with some of the High School Friends. We will be there during Ice Cream Days (Blue Bunny is made there). We also have a reservation at Archies Waeside Inn, an old-style Steakhouse once visited by Jane and Michael Stern which they gave rave reviews.

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  8. Anything can be better if you smile straight for 2 minutes without letting your lips droop. Just the act of smiling can change brain chemicals. We are anticipating a trip to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island on Saturday, but I have yet to feel the exhilaration and only sense the anxiety of all the things I need to get done before we leave.

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  9. Food is the first thing that comes to mind where anticipation is greater. Movies are frequently not as good as the previews suggest. Some vacations, esp. a plane trip to stay with family, pale in comparison to the anticipation. Road trips and train trips, on the other hand, are almost always up to snuff, for me anyway. Maybe it’s that there’s that buffer of time coming and going to absorb the impact of what really occurs with the family…

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  10. I always look forward to how my yard and gardens will look once they have begun to bloom. I usually start anticipating the blooms sometime in March or April when everything is till gray and brown. When things finally start blooming it is indeed beautiful, but there are also bugs! And weeds! And a huge lawn on a hill to mow! I think that’s when the anticipation of the event might indeed be sweeter than the event itself.

    Nice musical choice, Dale. I’ve often noticed the same thing about that song – the sun really does seem to come out!

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      1. I can’t believe that the last 10 days of weather reports going ahead show 80s and sunshine, yet they keep moving it out another day. Day after day. How can they not seem to get this “right”?

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    2. I also look forward to the spring flowers, Krista. If things turn out right I will have some nice blooms from about this time to about mid summer or a little latter. I am still not able to do this every year due to my lack of skill at growing flowers. I am off to a fairly good start this year with several early flowers doing well including a Jacob’s ladder plant, native geraniums, iris, and sweet cicely

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  11. Perhaps this is an obvious one, but I think Christmas can be like that – the best part is going through the weeks leading up to the holiday, when its presence on the calendar brings about a festive mood, at least if one is careful not to overschedule and create stress over it. On Christmas Day itself, the radio stations all switch abruptly back to their regular programming, and there are leftovers to be wrapped up and wrapping paper to be discarded and routines to be rehoisted.

    OT, for some reason I felt the need to turn in earlier than usual last night. Slept really well, too.

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    1. my daughter (the 6th no now 7th grader) had a bonfire party last night with 7 or 8 friends over. they bounced on the trampoline, played video games ate popcorn and about 830 or so I suggested they consider starting the fire. we want to wait for it to get dark they said. but I heard a couple of mom say theyd be back about 930 or 10 and it is one week till the longest day of the year so it gets dark about 930 or 10. (what time where you are renee? I was in minot one june 22nd many years ago sitting on a friends porch at 1130 with the sun still up) they held off and at 930 when half went home the other half decided the fire was not needed and so the tunes on the iphone and the trampoline were the highlight.
      I anticipate this time of year with great longing and when it gets here I really enjoy it . even when its a bunch of crap like this year.

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      2. I was so annoyed driving to Fargo last week, as the damn sun wouldn’t go down and I my eye rods and cones couldn’t adjust and it was hard to see. It also seems that the sun rises in the north, not the west these days. In mid winter it seems the sun is far to the south of us

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  12. My daughter’s annual horse pasture opening, delayed for 6 weeks by this awful weather, was finally held last Sunday. The weather was in the low-50s and it rained the whole day. In spite of this, droves of loyal boarders, families and friends showed up to take the hay wagons to the back forty and experience 93 horses galloping toward them in sheer ecstasy. They gallop circles around the awaiting crowd for ten minutes, then ultimately settle down and begin eating real grass. I was so relieved that people showed up!

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  13. Sometimes I keep a new (or new to me) book by my bed so I can look at it and anticipate the pleasure I will get from reading it. Sometimes it sits there for two to three weeks. With some books, the anticipation is definitely more pleasurable than the reading, but with other books, the pleasure of reading is equal to the anticipation.

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