Dopamine

Dopamine is a complex hormone that has a number of functions throughout the body that regulate the metabolic system. Within the Blood Brain Barrier, Dopamine is used as a neurotransmitter, passing certain types of signals at the synaptic gap from one neuron to another neuron. Different areas of the brain use Dopamine to regulate different kinds of brain activity, for example, the Medial Prefrontal Cortex (mPFC) appears to contain a collection of systems that we call the Executive Function.

This is a part of:

Neurologically speaking, Dopamine in our PFC (prefrontal cortex) helps us to be creative, connect ideas to other ideas and understand the deeper layers of nuance – the Executive Function. Too much and our creativity can decrease and we risk psychosis, too little and our understanding of nuance and depth drops. In our cerebellum Dopamine is used to control our muscles, creating smooth and accurate movements. Low Dopamine here can cause a spectrum of problems, from clumsiness, dyspraxia, restless leg syndrome and Parkinson’s Disease.

We manufacture only so much Dopamine a day. For most people, this can rise and fall a bit depending on our needs. If we think too hard, or do too much physical activity, we deplete our reserves and be unable to think well until we generate some more.

Neurological Dopamine Medical Conditions

There are a few well known neurological dopamine conditions.

ADHD

ADHDers do not make and or retain sufficient Dopamine to properly utilise the PFC (prefrontal cortex) leading to poor Executive Function. ADHD Medication can often help with Dopamine creation, synaptic delivery and efficiency in our PFC.

Schizophrenia

Around half of people diagnosed with Schizophrenia are sensitive to having excess Dopamine. This over triggers certain Dopamine receptors, which triggers other neural network pathways that interfere with reality checking and an increase to creativity. The combination is psychosis, where the psychotic person can’t confidently tell what is real and what is false.

There is some fascinating research that shows that a commonality in psychosis is a the D2 receptor triggering a pathway to the Serotonin 5-HT2A receptor. Blocking only the D2 receptor and blocking only the 5-HT2A receptor doesn’t seem to strongly affect psychosis, so currently the hypothesis is the intermediary glial cell may be the core part of the disorder. More research is needed.

Parkinson’s Disease

Neurological Dopamine Systems

Dopamine specifically acts as a neurological transmitter, aka neurotransmitter. Neurotransmitters are one of a number of different chemicals that our brain uses to fill the synapse gap between different neurons. We have covered this in detail in the Neurotransmitters page [LINK].

Our brain has a number of different Dopamine Systems, where the Dopamine acts to enable certain different abilities throughout this system. A modulation (decrease or increase) in Dopamine will affect how effective the network of neurons in these regions work. Most are beyond the scope of this page.

Executive Function

Summary

The Executive Function is a common term to described important parts of higher thinking that is very poorly defined – each new research paper defines what is and is not within the EF differently and defines what part of the brain is involved differently. This makes it very hard to actually pin down what is the EF.

In brief, the Executive Function describes our ability to recognise a problem, analyse that problem, understand fundamental features of that problem, hold relevant information about that problem (working memory), solve the problem (new creative solutions and connecting to historical solutions), then initiate actions to address that problem.

Details

The Mesocortical and Mesolimbic Pathway is a Dopamine system that starts from your the central brain (Ventral Tegma) roughly between the top of your ears, and sweeps across to just above your eyes and then up your forehead . This Dopamine System is critically involved in modulating important neurological features such as motivation, emotional control, and cognition. It is where our behaviour Dopamine Rewards are released, making it easier for us to understand, solve and do tasks. Take a look further down for more about Dopamine Rewards. [External LINK]

Various Dopamine Pathways
Slashme; Patrick J. Lynch; User:Fvasconcellos, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The mesocortical and mesolimbic pathway meander through the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). This crucial cortical region is one of the primary things that separates our human thinking from other animals. It is poorly developed in children, only starting to mature from the onset of puberty, completing the full growth in our mid 20s. Effectively, the mPFC houses the interconnecting networks of neurons referred to as the Executive Function.

Here is a list of the main things that our Executive Function Does.

  • Cognitive process (understanding, reasoning, logical, assessment)
  • Regulation of emotion (not too high, not too low)
  • Motivation (planning and execution of behavior)
  • Sociability (interacting with others)
  • Working memory (holding relevant timely information that speeds up tasks)
  • Inhibitory response control (holding back doing the wanted action)
  • Maintenance of focused attention and concentration

The vast majority of medical conditions and neurodivergences that are haphazardly lumped under “mental illness” is effectively a dysfunction of the mPFC, which is often connected to Dopamine. [External LINK]

Research shows us that perceived external stressors affect how the Mesolimbic Dopamine Pathway operates. These can be physical stressors or psychological stressors. This then affects how the Mesocortical Dopamine Pathway affects our behavioural expression.

Dopamine Reward System

The Dopamine Rewards System releases a small amount of Dopamine to the PFC are anything that our ancient ancestors would have found beneficial. Our biology tries to reward us for doing things that improved

Dopamine Chasing Foods aka The Dopamine Diet

When we were hunter gatherers, types of food that were hard and highly rewarding were things that can be broken down to glucose, various amines and salt. Salt was easy to get at the coast of the oceans, or in the middle of deserts, but hard to get everywhere else. Each of these has an important role to play in how we think and feel.

Summary:

The core Dopamine Chasing Foods are:

  • Fat
  • Carbohydrates
  • Sugars
  • Protein
  • Salt

None of these foods are inherently bad, when part of a balanced diet. Often, when diets are out of balance such as eating disorders, these foods become the primary ratio of food, and the foods that should be the in majority are too low. For more information on what a well balanced healthy diet looks like, check out Nutrition, Health in Body and Mind [LINK].

When we eat these foods, our brain releases some stored Dopamine and Endorphins Neurotransmitter to reinforce the behaviour (eating those foods). With the increase in glucose (from the food), Dopamine and Endorphins, we can think more clearly, push ourselves harder and stabilise our mood. This can benefit in thinking and feeling can lead to a complex reinforcing feedback loop that is at the core of many eating disorders.

Details:

Neuronal Dopamine Genesis, detailed below, relies on Oestradiol and B6 to help extract the amino acid Tyrosine from the eaten Protein. We use B6, Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid) and Ferritin to convert Tyrosine into L-Dopa and then finally into Dopamine. Oestradiol is used at the gland that produces Dopamine in the brain to regulate the rate of Dopamine production.

Looking at the Dopamine Chasing Foods above:

  • Fat: we generally crave trans and saturated fats. When we ingest this, we extract long chain cholesterol. LDL Cholesterol is a key ingredient that we generate primary sex hormones with, which we use to make Estradiol. Additionally, the creamy texture often creates a “nice mouth feel”, which stimulates the release of endorphins. Endorphins help us feel less pain and more joy, which makes the release of Dopamine more efficient. Effectively, this helps boost how much Dopamine we generate and release.
  • Carbohydrates and Sugars: Our brains are very expensive organs to run. Our brain consumes 20% of our bodies resources. When we think hard, our frontal cortex can deplete our blood sugar quite rapidly in the absence of physical exertion, and on low blood sugar our brain can reduce thinking. This exacerbates the brain fog of low Dopamine in our frontal cortex. Adding glucose to our system in the form of sugars (lactose, fructose and sucrose) and carbohydrates that we can break down into glucose, will trigger a release of sugar into our blood, tricking our frontal cortex to operate again. We often get a small endorphin surge when we eat sweet foods, which improves Dopamine production and release.
  • Protein: Tyrosine is the base building block for Dopamine, which is the precursor for Noradrenaline to maintain our amygdala (mood, sense of safety), which is a precursor for Adrenaline which we use to increase our alertness and mental arousal. The amino acid Tyrosine can be extracted from animal meats, Phenylalanine and some artificial sweeteners. Animal meat comes with its own B6, which is an important catalyst for extraction and conversion of Tyrosine into Dopamine. Unfortunately, most of the protein we crave in the junk food category are low in Tyrosine and B6.
  • Salt: For our frontal cortex to operate, neurons need to communicate with each other. A neuron sends a signal down the Axon towards the Synaptic Gap, where we use Dopamine as the neurotransmitter to act as an on switch for the signal. The Axon works by cascading sodium and calcium ions – sodium (Na+), potassium (K+), chloride (Cl−), and calcium (Ca2+).
    • Common table salt contains both sodium and chloride, two of the primary ingredients we need for this signal.
    • Our body can leach calcium from our bones if necessary.
    • It is possible to be low on Potassium. Some complex salts in junk food include potassium.
    • Common signs of Potassium deficiency
      • weakness and fatigue
      • feeling tired
      • muscle cramps
      • an abnormal heart rhythm (arrhythmia -skipped heartbeats or an irregular heartbeat)

Effectively, the foods that we eat when we are feeling dysregulated in mood and thinking contain the most common base ingredients that we would be deficient in if that were what is causing us to be low in Dopamine. If you have ADHD though, while these can be bottlenecks that exacerbate your problems with Dopamine, these aren’t the primary cause of these problems. Unfortunately, your brain doesn’t factor in that you didn’t take your medication, or that your medication is insufficient, and prompts you to go and eat foods that contain the above.

Acquisition Rewards

Dopamine Addiction

Socialising

Neuronal Dopamine Genesis – AKA how we make brain Dopamine

TLDR

Put simply, we need to eat protein that contains Phenylalanine and or Tyrosine, Vitamin B6, digestible Iron and Vitamin C. This is the basic ingredients that we make Dopamine out of.

Details

To make dopamine in your brain, you need to feed your body with some essential basic ingredients. Those ingredients are:

  • Protein that includes the amino acids tyrosine and the phenylalanine
    • Sourced from meat, soy, dairy, nuts, and eggs.
    • If needed, supplements like protein powder (make sure it lists tyrosine and phenylalanine), or the artificial sweetener aspartame. 
    • If you are diagnosed with PUK, you’ll need to use Tyrosine only as you need to avoid Phenylalanine.
  • Vitamine B6
    • Sourced from chickpeas, meat, potatoes, bananas and more
    • If needed, you can take Vitamin B6 supplements, often found in a B complex supplement.
  • Vitamin C
    • Sourced from citrus fruits such as oranges, limes and lemons; most other juicy fruits and berries; Red capsicum (peppers for the USA), and most green vegetables. The relative strength is in the order listed here, with citrus being the strongest.
    • If needed, you can take Vitamin C supplements, or drink black current cordial with fortified Vitamin C.
    • Modern medications rely on certain enzymes to metabolise. Vitamin C can temporarily block some of these, such as most ADHD medications and birth control hormones. This means that for a few hours after taking strong Vitamin C, some medications that you take may not be effective. Check the paperwork that comes with your medication to see if this is a factor for you and if so, take your Vitamin C boost at another time.
  • Ferritin
    • Our body stores iron in a protein called Ferritin. One of the uses of the iron in Ferritin is to make red blood cells to carry the oxygen around our body, but another important use of that iron is to help make neurotransmitters. This is why it is important to have enough body store iron in the form of Ferritin. Our body generally prioritises making red blood cells over running your higher brain functions, so you can have excellent red blood cell count and still be low in Ferritin.

Resources: