S01E06 Are you overworking your brain? Mental workload and mental fatigue

Thanks to pop culture, dopamine is commonly associated with pleasure-seeking and addiction, but its function goes way beyond that.

Despite the fact that only about 400 000 out of 10 billion neurons in our brain produce it, the importance of natural dopamine for our survival is tremendous. It is responsible for us making a difference between what is good and what is bad for us, our ability to compare expectations to reality, but also for basic functions like physical movement. And it’s not only survival of humans it has a role in - dopamine systems are something we share with organisms as simple as fruit flies.

To find out about dopamine function and current research into it, Kim and Alessia interview professor Ulrik Gether, head of the Department of Neuroscience at Copenhagen University. A trained medical doctor, Gether studied at Copenhagen University and Stanford University Medical School, and is now a leading researcher on neurotransmitters, dopamine in particular. He currently co-manages the project called Attention to Dopamine, an interdisciplinary endeavor aiming to provide better understanding of the relations between dopamine and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Even more importantly, he tells us about practical ways in which we can affect dopamine production to improve our lifestyles - its role in changing habits and how to prevent relapse into old bad habits. Furthermore, we find out about the applications of dopamine in Parkinson’s disease treatment, ADHD, and schizophrenia, and get to peek into the cutting-edge research of dopamine Gether does at his lab at Mærsk Tower, Copenhagen.

Kim Baden-Kristensen is the co-founder and CEO of Brain+, a digital therapeutics company that helps people with brain disorders and injuries to recover their fundamental cognitive brain functions and daily life capabilities by using an app-based cognitive rehabilitation platform, which is developed in close collaboration with patients, clinicians and researchers.https://www.linkedin.com/in/kbadenk/
Alessia Covello is a life science IT consultant working in the field of healthcare technology implementation, and advocating for better services for people with brain conditions and learning disabilities.https://www.linkedin.com/in/alessiacovello/

Talking points include:

4:13 What is dopamine and why is it important?

9:19 Dopamine and addiction - how compulsive behaviors arise, what they do to receptors in the brain, and how to defeat addiction

18:44 The power of habit and changing habits: The process of “cue-behavior-reward”

21:37 Dopamine and movement - dopamine gets us going

22:13 Dopamine in Parkinson's disease (PD) and Parkinson’s treatment

28:45 Schizophrenia, dopamine, and related treatments

32:42 ADHD, dopamine, and related treatments

37:36 Current research on dopamine - what we have learned in the recent years and how

42:03 Research in Gether’s lab - genetic factors and dopamine, its relation to early onset Parkinson, effects of drugs, etc.

48:06 The future of dopamine research - gene editing and its potential in brain treatments

Disclaimer:

All references to products, companies, and organizations in this podcast and the article that accompanies it are included with the purpose to inform, rather than promote or advertise. The podcast authors do not receive financial compensation