The Path to Enough

This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedanta. It seems like the simplest choice in the world. Given the option between pain and pleasure, we ought to choose pleasure. Is it better to be hungry or full? Better to be tired or alert?

Better to watch another episode of our favorite TV show? or do the dishes. It isn't just our own minds that tell us to choose the path of enjoyment and indulgence. Our friends remind us that life is short. Say no to dessert or another round of drinks, and someone might call you a spoiled sport.

At Stanford University, psychiatrist Anna Lemke has heard the same messages. But as a scientist, she's also studied the way our brains balance pain and pleasure. The two sit on opposite ends of a neural seesaw, and the brain constantly attempts to bring them into equilibrium or what is known as homeostasis. When we press down hard and often on the pleasure side of the seesaw, triggering bursts of the neurotransmitter dopamine, Anna says the brain automatically compensates by pressing down on the other side, producing a dopamine deficit.

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