By Gary Geyer

There’s a new study from the National Institute of Health and you’re not going to like it. Then again, maybe you won’t care one way or the other.

In a nutshell

The bad news is, as we age is we don’t experience the highs we once did. The good news is that we don’t experience the lows we once did either. [Do you agree or disagree?]

All this might fall under the heading of “mellowing out.”

You know the expression on a kid’s face when he or she opens a present? When was the last time you had that expression on your face? The study says that as we get older our brains don’t respond to rewards like we used to.

Dopamine

The culprit it seems is dopamine, a natural occurring chemical in the body that the brain responds to and directly effects how we respond to those so-called rewards.

Brain scans don’t lie

Brain scans were performed on two groups of volunteers. One group was in their twenties and the other in their sixties. Both groups played on a computer game that resembled a slot machine.

As you might suspect from the tone of this article, there were differences between the groups. The differences occurred both when the two groups anticipated winning money from the game and when they actually did win the money.

Wake up, brain!

The research showed that there were differences in the amounts of dopamine in not just how much was produced but which parts of the brain responded to it and in how much it responded to it.

The bottom line, like it or not.

The study found that in the younger group when a reward was anticipated, three parts of the brain’s “reward center” (whatever that is) responded. In the older group, however, only one part responded.

So that’s that. As of now there doesn’t seem to be anything we can do about it. <<

Editor’s note: I Googled the question ‘Is there such a thing as a dopamine pill?’ and got mixed results. Here’s the best answer I found (from Yahoo Answers):

“Actually yes. Well, sort of. One type medication (available by Rx only) is a combination of carbidopa and levodopa (brand name is Sinemet). Both are chemical analogues (similar molecules) to dopamine. This is a med commonly given to people with Parkinson’s disease. Unfortunately, if taken orally, dopamine has great difficulty in crossing the barrier between the blood and the central nervous sytem (brain). These chemical analogues are used instead as they cross the CNS more readily and then convert to dopamine. Beware the use of these meds if you do not have need for it. You can desensitize your dopamine receptors- causing all sorts of problems in the long run. And the side effects you might experience just aren’t worth the risk unless you suffer from something as debilitating as Parkinson’s.”