How Your Brain’s Reward Circuits Drive Your Choices | Dr. Robert Malenka

In this episode, my guest is Robert Malenka, MD, PhD, a professor
of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford School of
Medicine who has made numerous seminal discoveries of how the brain
changes (neuroplasticity) in response to learning and in response
to rewarding and reinforcing experiences. We discuss the brain’s
several reward systems involving dopamine and serotonin and how
these motivate us to seek out specific behaviors and substances. We
discuss how these reward systems are modified based on context and
our memories, and how they can be hijacked toward maladaptive drug
seeking in addiction. We also explore how reward systems influence
social connections, oxytocin and empathy and how that applies to
our understanding of autism spectrum disorders. This episode should
be of interest to those interested in neuroplasticity, social
bonding, addiction, autism, learning and motivation. For show
notes, including referenced articles and additional resources,
please visit hubermanlab.com. Use Ask Huberman Lab, our new
AI-powered platform, for a summary, clips, and insights from this
episode. Thank you to our sponsors AG1:
https://athleticgreens.com/huberman LMNT:
https://drinklmnt.com/hubermanlab Waking Up:
https://wakingup.com/huberman Momentous:
https://livemomentous.com/huberman Timestamps (00:00:00) Dr. Robert
Malenka (00:02:53) Sponsors: LMNT & Waking Up (00:05:21)
Dopamine & Reward Circuitry (00:11:31) Reward, Arousal, Memory
& Dopamine  (00:17:34) Context, Cues & Dopamine
Modification (00:25:38) Memory & Reward Scaling (00:30:50)
Dopamine, “Addictive Liability” & Route of Administration 
(00:39:25) Sponsor: AG1 (Athletic Greens) (00:40:40) Drugs of Abuse
& Brain Changes; Addiction & Individual Variability
(00:50:51) Reinforcement vs. Reward, Wanting vs. Liking (00:57:500
Opioids, Psychostimulants & Dopamine (01:04:51) Self-Doubt,
Confidence & Career (01:12:40) Autism Spectrum Disorder
(01:19:29) Pro-Social Interaction & Reward; Oxytocin, Serotonin
& Dopamine (01:30:30) Nucleus Accumbens & Behavior
Probability (01:38:28) Reward for Pro-Social Behavior (01:43:13)
Social Media & “Addictive Liability”; Gambling (01:52:17) Pain,
Social Behavior & Empathy (02:02:19) Empathy Circuitry,
Dopamine & Serotonin  (02:10:07) Autism Spectrum Disorder
& Social Interactions, Empathy (02:17:23) MDMA, Serotonin &
Dopamine; Addiction & Pro-Social Effects (02:28:13) Autism
Spectrum Disorder, Social Behavior, MDMA & Pharmacology
(02:37:18) Serotonin, MDMA & Psychedelics  (02:40:16)
Psychedelics: Research & Therapeutic Potential (02:47:57)
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