Cold water exposure up to the neck caused lots of dopamine to be released during the exposure as well as afterward. It lead to a highly alert and calm state of mind. Cold water exposure was highly linked to this.
We all have a baseline level of dopamine that is circulating through our body and brain at all times. After we have a spike in dopamine, that baseline level drops.
Dopamine is a neuromodulator not a neurotransmitter. Modulators coordinate which pathways are active and which are not.
Dopamine are responsible for motivation, desire, mood, and craving. Also important in perception of time and movement.
There are two dopamine pathways: reward and movement
Dopamine is involved in local release (in a singular synapse) and volumetric release (huge release to hundreds and potentially thousands of neurons)
Pleasure is equal to the difference in peak and baseline. If you raise both you will not experience a difference in pleasure / wellbeing.
Neurons communicate with eachother in two main ways:
Dopamine doesn’t work on its own, it works with glutamate. Glutamate is excitatory and increases charge of neurons making them more active. Dopamine brings us into a state of alertness / readiness.
Dopamine makes you looks outside yourself and pursue things outside yourself.
If you’re feeling lethargic or lazy you’re in a low dopamine state.
Dopamine is what we use to track levels of success. Your experience of pleasure is based on how much dopamine you have relative to recent levels.
The pleasure we experience is directly related to:
This is why when we repeatedly partake in an activity we enjoy, our threshold goes up and up and up.