Dopamine is the ‘sex,drug and rock’n’roll’ molecule
Dopamine, discovered in 1957, is one of 20 major neurotransmitters, chemicals that carry urgent messages between neurons, nerves and other cells in the body. These neurotransmitters ensure our hearts keep beating, our lungs keep breathing and, in dopamine’s case, that we know to get a glass of water when we feel thirsty, or attempt to procreate so that our genes may survive our death.
In the 1980s, following a series of experiments on rats by Wolfram Schultz, now a professor of neuroscience at Cambridge University, showed that, inside the midbrain, dopamine relates to the reward we receive for an action. Dopamine, it seemed, was to do with desire, ambition, addiction and sex drive.