Dopamine, Wall Street and the Financial Meltdown → Washingtons Blog
Dopamine, Wall Street and the Financial Meltdown - Washingtons Blog

Monday, March 15, 2010

Dopamine, Wall Street and the Financial Meltdown


Neuroscientists have known for many years that the neurotransmitter dopamine plays a major role in drug addiction.

More recently, scientists have discovered that dopamine also plays a big part in basic risk-taking behavior.

For example, Time wrote in 2007:

Everyone can learn from their mistakes — but some people have genes that may make it harder. That's the message from German researchers, writing in tomorrow's issue of the journal Science, who have shown how a common gene variant affects some people's ability to respond to, and learn from, the negative repercussions of their actions...

Those men, it turns out, had a particular gene variant, or allele, that reduces the density of receptors for dopamine — a neurotransmitter that plays a key role in motivation, pleasure and addiction — in certain areas of the brain...

It's the first strong physiological evidence that the density of dopamine receptors may affect how people respond to negative inputs. Previous studies have established a strong link between a low density of dopamine receptors and addiction, obesity and compulsive gambling — conditions that suggest an impaired ability to learn from the consequences of bad decisions.



3 comments:

  1. Very funny... to employ a micro size, bio-language on the causes of an epidemic of family suffering, by those who can flout the intent of the law, in our trusted money transactions, and get away with it.

    In the mean time our local politically elected leaders become the victims of tricky barriers, designed to corrupt the justice dealt to Magdoff.

    The dopamine that matters is, if, and when, the major directors, with ILL GOTTEN $GAINS, meet the prison wardens, employed to deter these financial, MBA wizzards, from inflicting harm on us, our families, communities and employers.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 2nd attempt to register blog:

    Very funny... to employ a micro size, bio-language on the causes of an epidemic of family suffering, by ‎those who can flout the intent of the law, in our trusted money transactions, and get away with it.‎

    ‎ In the mean time our local politically elected leaders become the victims of tricky barriers, designed to ‎corrupt the justice dealt to Magdoff.‎

    The dopamine that matters is, if, & when the major directors, with ILL GOTTEN $GAINS, meet the ‎prison wardens, employed to deter these financial, MBA wizards, from inflicting harm on us, our ‎families, communities and employers

    ReplyDelete
  3. Visit Our New Window to Wall Street http://WSJr.nl

    ReplyDelete

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