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Off Topic => Engineering => Topic started by: Nemesis on December 09, 2007, 10:28:39 am

Title: Why some people don't learn from their mistakes.
Post by: Nemesis on December 09, 2007, 10:28:39 am

Link to full article (http://www.nature.com/news/2007/071206/full/news.2007.358.html)

Quote

Drug addicts, alcoholics and compulsive gamblers are known to be more likely than other people to have this genetic mutation, which leaves them with fewer receptors of a certain type in the brain. These receptors — called D2 receptors — are activated when levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine drop.

Dopamine is responsible for signalling fun and pleasure in the brain. But dopamine also helps us learn. When we make a pleasurable decision, dopamine is a chemical treat, urging the brain to repeat the choice. Being deprived of such a treat should theoretically activate D2 receptors and encourage people not to make that same decision again.

So it had been theorized that people with fewer D2 receptors might be less capable of learning from negative reinforcement