This question has been stuck on my mind since last night.
If dopamine signals were (somehow) artificially triggered during negative actions in someones brain through some machine or something, could the brain defy logic and reasoning and perceive those actions as positive?
That’s called drugs and yes it usually impacts their reasoning
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Of course. Your personality and consciousness are entirely defined by three things: Your memories, your current surroundings, and the current chemical state of your brain/body. Changing any of those will change your logic and reasoning because reasoning in a vacuum is something only computers do.
For examples of changes that would drastically alter the thought process of even the most stoic, rational person, here:
- Memories: Amnesia from brain injury
- Surroundings: Being trapped in a coffin full of centipedes
- Brain chemistry: Being high on methamphetamine
Any of these things will immediately demonstrate that we are not computers or logic machines.
TBF if you change the chemistry of your circuit boards the computer won’t work the same either.
Same with removing stored settings files.
Honestly, probably same after a certain amount of time with the centipede coffin.
If you want scientific details, look-up longitudinal studies on cocaine addiction and treatment. There are some surprising scientific insights on dopamine
Can you recommend a paper as a starting point?
It’s been a while since I last studied neurology. I couldn’t find the paper I was hoping too, but I found a different one that honestly might be more what OP was looking for anyways.
Note: the gambling task is probably the most relevant in terms of distorted logic and decision making.
There’s a difference between signalling the brain to release its own dopamine and taking external dopamine. (Important note: All of this is a simplification, I am not an expert!)
The first could be done with drugs (legal and illegal) or other dopamine-stimulating activities with instant rewards, and it absolutely has the ability to change our reasoning (like “Oh yeah, I’ll definitely feel better if I sit motionlessly for hours scrolling memes I don’t even find that funny, and should not, as logic and knowledge dictates, maybe go outside and move my body a little, because that won’t feel as good (doesn’t release as much dopamine)”). So here, the answer is yes, totally. Which is why for example ADHD medication tries to effect an easier release of dopamine to make it easier on the brain-carrier to make different choices, away from instant reward towards delayed gratification.
For the second thing - dopamine’s precursor, L-Dopa, is the straightest way to actually add more dopamine to the brain (since dopamine itself can not pass the blood-brain-barrier, but L-dopa can and is then synthesized into dopamine), which is done in Parkinson’s patients and helps them tremendously. Interestingly however, if you overdose it, you can fall into a drug-induced psychosis, a state in which one could argue that logic and reasoning are indeed affected, so that’s another yes, but not in the way you mean, I think.
In conclusion, brain neurotransmitter chemistry is pretty complicated, but interesting, and the answer to the question if changing something about it will lead to different ways of thinking is very often yes, which is why medicine is doing it :)
