How habits form: why you do things you never decided to do
Dopamine and habits: how the brain learns which cue matters
Dopamine is often called the pleasure chemical. Scientists who listened to dopamine cells while animals learned heard something else. What do those cells really tell the brain?
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Meet the teacher: a small group of cells deep in the brain that release dopamine, a chemical messenger. Scientists listened to them, first in monkeys and later in rats, while the animals learned a simple lesson: first a sound, then a drop of sweet juice.
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The first time, the drop is a surprise, and the cells burst with activity the moment it lands. So far, dopamine seems to mean simply "a treat".
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