SeekingSlate: For humans, this desire to search is not just about fulfilling our physical needs... Humans can get just as excited about abstract rewards as tangible ones... When we get thrilled about the world of ideas, about making intellectual connections, about divining meaning, it is the seeking circuits that are firing. The juice that fuels the seeking system is the neurotransmitter dopamine. The dopamine circuits 'promote states of eagerness and directed purpose.'... It's a state humans love to be in...
When we experience pleasure, it is our own opioid system, rather than our dopamine system, that is being stimulated... Wanting and liking are complementary. The former catalyzes us to action; the latter brings us to a satisfied pause. Seeking needs to be turned off, if even for a little while, so that the system does not run in an endless loop. When we get the object of our desire... we engage in consummatory acts that reduce arousal in the brain, and, temporarily at least, inhibit our urge to seek...
But our brains are designed to more easily be stimulated than satisfied... Nature imbued us with an unquenchable drive to discover, to explore... The possibility of a payoff is much more stimulating than actually getting one.
