Behind the Scenes of The Brain Show

by Zeev Nitsan

  Prediction of economic behavior, which is based on the hypothesis that humans make economic considerations by using only a rational point of view, has a limited efficacy. The stock exchange arena is ruled by the amygdala, as it is ruled by the frontal lobes, and sometimes the latter are even less prominent there.

  Routine experiences bring with them an emotional suggestibility that is capable of conditioning our behavior. While we are driving, sometimes the song we listen to include implicit effects that prime our decisions. Such effects might also be concealed in a newspaper’s subheading that caught our attention, or a sentence we heard from our colleague. All of these create an emotional charge that directs our tendency toward a more cautious or a more daring decision. In the random bush of priming factors, the incidence of logic-based paths is not high, which results in a difficulty in behavioral predictions in the economical context and other contexts. It also explains the difficulty of predicting stock exchange courses exclusively based on rationalistic models.

  “The economic reasonable man” is an elusive entity that is a hard nut to crack.

  The Fall Inside

  According to a study, the attitude of stock exchange investors is more cautious in the fall, and they tend to buy fewer shares during this season. It seems that the chilly winds that carry the falling leaves chill the investors’ enthusiasm as well. The season of the year creates a season of the brain, a sort of emotional climate that serves as a substrate that sprouts seasonal wishes, which might change as a new season comes. It seems that the weather creates priming, which leads us to prefer a different risk management policy painted in seasonal shades (or even daily shades, or shades of the hour).

  Dim Monday, Sunny Friday

  It was found that sunny days are more likely to end with appreciation of rates at the stock exchange, while cloudy days are more likely to end with depreciation of rates. It was also found that the days at the beginning of the week are more likely to be painted in gloomy shades and are more prone to depreciation of rates, while the days closer to the weekend are more prone to appreciation of rates.

  The “fear index” (referred to as the VIX), which attempts to quantify the sense of anxiety among stock exchange investors, demonstrates, through its fluctuations, the waves of hope and despair that shake investors. The amygdala is the main generator of these fluctuations, which depend on the level of its activity.

  “The ultimatum game” is called this because the owner of the property presents an ultimatum to his partner—“take it or leave it”—and does not leave any room for negotiation. Studies show that when the owner of a property offers a lower share of the property’s value (usually a value lower than one-third of the value), the resentment toward the “unfair offer” wins, and it is rejected by the other party. This is an example of a nonrationalistic reaction, since getting any share of the property is better, in terms of economic common sense, than getting nothing. This tendency rules until the proposed share constitutes a “reasonable sum,” and although it still constitutes only one-third of the prize, its absolute value is higher, since the basic sum of the prize is higher. In this case, due to the change of circumstances, the childish anger is put aside, and the insulted ego is replaced by the content ego and is willing to accept a third of the property. Such a scenario is a battlefield between emotional reactions and rationalistic reactions.

  The insula is the source of the sense of insult when one of the participants is offered a sum he perceives as “inappropriate.” The prefrontal cortex is the source of “economic rationalism,” whose aim is to close the deal so we will “see the money.” The frontal part of the cingulate tries to mediate between these two “behavioral recommendations,” which often conflict, as the entity in charge of arbitration, at times, between inner-brain mental confrontations.

  “The dictator game” is similar to the ultimatum game except for one significant aspect: the party to whom the offer is made must accept the offer. When there is no option of rejecting the offer, and thus no need to make a decision, there is no emotional-cognitive dissonance, which is common in the ultimatum game.

  At the time of competitive sale, when more than one participant is involved, such as in a tender or an auction, a different cognitive dynamic takes place. The sense of fairness or lack of fairness with respect to the offers, as is commonly reflected in the ultimatum game, is usually replaced by “cold” economic considerations.

  Different life situations involve significant information gaps. Our knowledge is never complete. Sometimes, as in a game of chess, the information on life’s board is exposed but the plans of our opponent are concealed. On the other hand, in a game of poker very little is exposed, and the intentions of our opponent are concealed, as well.

  Poker-like situations are like a jiggly dance with the unknown. In the game played by the masses, such as the game of the stock exchange, asymmetric information (reflecting an information gap—additional information held by some of the participants and concealed from others) sometimes grants a crucial, unfair advantage. Dealing with scenarios that include various levels of built-in uncertainty, and to which the reaction is time restricted, serves as the catalyst for decisions that do not necessarily rely on common sense.

  Chapter 5: The Story of Dopamine

  As an example of the importance of neurotransmitters that compose the biochemical cocktail in which our brain resides, this chapter focuses on one of the main neurotransmitters—dopamine.

  The effect of dopamine was clarified in 1954 during an experiment carried out by two researchers, Peter Milner and James Olds. They put an electrode at the core of a rat’s brain at a spot that later turned out to be the nucleus accumbens—which has a central role in producing the experience of pleasure in the brain. A constant electrical stimulation of this area made the rats wrap themselves up at the corner of their cage, overwhelmed with pleasure and ignoring all aspects of basic existence—food, drink, sleep, and a love life—until, at a certain point, they died of thirst. Afterward, it was found that as a result of the electrical stimulation, waves of dopamine flooded the area of nucleus accumbens, and its importance in creating a sense of supreme pleasure was made clear.[21]

  The experiments of researcher Wolfram Schultz improved our understanding of the roles of dopamine and shed light on them. Shultz inserted a needle into single cells that communicated through dopamine in a monkey’s brain. Shultz made a sound, after which he dripped a few drops of apple juice into the monkey’s mouth. The cells responded to the apple juice with applause of dopamine spurts. Later, upon learning the correlation between the sound and the following drip of juice, the cells started to react with spurts of dopamine as soon as the sound was heard. Shultz called these cells “prediction cells,” since they matched their activity to the reward scenario—the dripping of apple juice—and calibrated themselves, with fine-tuning, in a pattern of constant feedback to the level of reward and sometimes even to the lack of reward.[22]

  Dopamine is responsible for navigating many of our behaviors, since it seems that it calibrates the dial of motivation to perform them. It is not an exclusive contributor to the calibration of the dial—other neurotransmitters also take part in this complex function—but the role of dopamine is central.

  If we step up the resolution ladder toward one of Freud’s main arguments regarding the central role of the libido in regulating our behavior, we might claim that it is not the libido, per se, but the dopamine, and the attempt to increase its level, which is at the basis of the libido, that constitutes this central layer in our behavioral motivation.

  With respect to this claim, we might add that the intensification of dopamine levels caused by the image of the pretty Helen in the brain of Menelaus, King of Sparta (as a “mental, virtual icon,” as she was not there physically), led him to send a thousand Greek ships to Troy.

  Another “Greek illustration” of intense inner motivation guided by dopamine is the Sacred Band of Thebes, which was composed of 150 pairs of male lov
ers who formed a united group with the help of which the Thebes army managed to beat the tough Spartan soldiers. This elite troop was almost completely annihilated in the battle against the Macedonians. This is a cynical example of a cruel link between concepts that are “spiritual enemies”: love and war (and a mirror image of the naive advice to “make love; not war”). In this case, the love and companionship among the troops, mediated by the dopamine and oxytocin neurotransmitters, were used to serve the war machine.

  We might even claim, then, that it is not money that makes the world go around but, rather, the increase of dopamine levels in the brain that derives from the joys money can buy and in second-order conditioning—the financial profit itself.

  Dopamine also has an important role in determining the “borders of the self.” When the normal function of dopaminergic neurons (the neurons among which dopamine mediates information transfer) is disrupted, the borders of the self become blurred. People who suffer from schizophrenia (whose cause, according to a common hypothesis, is disruption in the tracks of dopamine and its receptors) thus often complain about hearing their inner thoughts as external voices. This is an example of the removal of partitions between “private territory” and “public territory,” in the sense of the experiences they have.

  Dopamine inducts a tendency for visual hallucinations and delusions. Its biochemical derivatives, noradrenaline and adrenaline, might also contribute to this. Dopamine is the main contender for the title “the main prediction substance in the brain.” With the help of dopamine, the brain predicts the future and interprets reality.

  In ADHD, there is reduction in the level of dopamine and noradrenalin derived from it. As a reflection of that, the key areas in the brain whose activity is reduced, in cases of ADHD, are the prefrontal cortex and the paths connecting it to the dorsal cingulate gyrus and the basal ganglia, located at the core of our brain. As a result, a difficulty might develop with respect to “executive functions,” which are mostly the responsibility of prefrontal brain areas. These might include difficulty in focusing attention and preventing it from shifting toward distracting events at the margins of the attention beam, difficulty in mental resistance (the ability to preserve a lasting thinking effort), difficulty in refining reactions (sublimation) that might hurt other people, and so on.

  A saying that briefly expresses the functional difficulty characterizing people who suffer from ADHD arises from the “Berkeley theory,” according to which “ADHD is not a problem of knowing what to do, but rather of doing what is known.”

  Using medications that reduce dopamine activity in the brain (referred to, in professional jargon, as “neuroleptic medications”), although sometimes necessary, especially during psychotic episodes, carry the side effect risk of scarecrow-like behavior: lacking initiation and motivation.

  The claim that in many senses we are nothing but “biochemical marionettes” is painfully reinforced in light of such conditions.

  Genetic variance with respect to the amount of dopamine receptors is a popular explanation for a behavior pattern that hurts its owner. Nowadays we know of five types of dopamine receptors that differ in terms of their reactions. A mutation of the gene that causes reduction in the density of dopamine receptor D2 was found, in several studies, as correlating with the tendency to suffer from various types of addictions such as obsessive gambling. It seems a plausible explanation for that is related to the finding that, among those who have a relatively small amount of D2 receptors, there is a reduction in neural reaction to negative feedback. As a result, the negative implications of the addiction leave a more subtle impression on these people compared to the impression left on those who have a normal amount of D2 receptors. As a result, it is more difficult for them to learn how to avoid the risks. On the other hand, it is possible that the impression left by the sense of satisfaction fades away more quickly than usual, which makes them more prone to taking risks, which leads to an increase in the level of dopamine.

  Dopamine Dysregulation Disorder

  Among people who take medications that increase dopamine’s level in the brain or activate its receptors, a prominent behavioral change sometimes takes place. As part of the behavioral change, behaviors involving high risk, as well as behaviors that can potentially cause great excitement, in the sense of stimulating the reward and pleasure system in the brain, are intensified. Such behaviors include, inter alia, frequent gambling and hypersexuality. Alternatively, behaviors characterized by an obsessive nature are developed, such as compulsive, obsessive behavior that swallows the mental reservoir of the patient and steals a great part of his time resources. It seems that hyperactivity of the paths of dopaminergic neurons, especially at the functional system located at the core of our brain, called the “mesolimbic system,” is at the basis of such behaviors. This hyperactivity intensifies the craving for a spurt of dopamine, which accompanies a moment of excitement such as the moment of winning a large sum of money or, alternatively, the moment of orgasm. In other words, dopamine intensifies the craving for more dopamine up to the “verge of fireworks,” which leads to relaxation and a temporary pause in the race to increase the activity of dopaminergic neurons. After a while, the system is calibrated in such a way that only a stimulation of exceptional intensity—“supra-normal,” whose intensity is higher than the intensity of routine stimulations—manages to increase the level of dopamine. As in a vicious, magical circle, this phenomenon reduces the level of pleasure caused by the familiar and routine—a concept termed “hedonistic erosion.”

  About 15 percent of Parkinson’s patients who are treated with medications that increase the level of dopamine (called “dopaminergic medications”) develop a phenomenon characterized by difficulty in controlling urges and a low level of inhibition, which is reflected, inter alia, by an obsessive gambling urge. Patients who have experienced this described a surge of pleasure that floods their brain at the time of winning. Such a wave derives from a spurt of dopamine at brain areas that network the “cycle of reward.” The surge is formed as a result of the heightened availability of dopamine, carried on the waves of dopaminergic medications, and it makes patients experience “addictive happiness,” which serves as a motive for continuing to gamble.

  Dopamine has a great effect on our moods. Parkinson’s patients who are at a state of severe decline in dopamine content in the brain (the professional term used to describe such a situation is “off”) often feel melancholic and claim their “vital spark” has been extinguished. A low level of dopamine inducts a sort of “biochemical anhedonia” and a wide variety of low moods from dysphoria to major depression.

  Supra-Normal Stimulation

  “Supra-normal stimulation” is the term coined by the Dutch biologist and Noble Laureate Niko Tinbergen. It refers to a stimulation characterized by higher intensity compared to natural stimulation and formed through the tendency to intensify the reward and increase the intensity of dopamine spurts.

  The current repertoire of stimulations in our era allows for a variety of supranatural (“supra-normal”) stimulations, which turn the dial of excitement in our brain toward values it is not designed to reach naturally. Habituation to stimulation at a certain level of intensity makes it unsatisfactory down the road, and from one experience to another the unidirectional push of the stimulation threshold is formed upward in order to retain the same level of excitement.

  In order to increase the level of dopamine, an ever-growing intensity of stimulation is needed, which is similar to the phenomenon of drug addicts needing larger quantities of a drug in order to retain the same effect.

  An example of a contemporary, troublesome behavioral effect related to supranatural stimulations

  is the preference of online pornography to a flesh-and-blood partner.

  Dopamine and Co.

  It seems that a central ingredient in the divine nectar that nourishes our brain and wheels our life is dopamine.

  Focusing on a single neurotransmitter, out of the
many neurotransmitters that sail in the streams of our brain, is not intended to underestimate the essential role of other neurotransmitters. Thus for example Two other neurotransmitters that cooperate with dopamine to enhance the feeling of pleasure are Enkepalin (an opioid ‘made in the brain’) and Anandamide (the brain’s version of marijuana).

  Many neural messengers that constantly change in terms of location and concentration take part in complex brain functions. There is no single neurotransmitter that navigates complex brain activity exclusively, but dopamine, as aforementioned, has an important role in numerous key brain functions.

  Dopamine at the Service of Genes

  In a totally nonaccidental manner, situations that lead to “dopamine spurts” are closely related to improving gene survival. For instance, sexual orgasm involves a chance of creating a new creature that will carry some of the genes into the future.

  On the day we are born we already have an overdraft in terms of genes: a “performance demand” of the libido bound with a fine from the ones who take their time. The fine is the sense of inner tension, which consumes energy resources, as a reminder that you still have to pay your periodic debt to the genes and fulfill your evolutional role. The sense of pleasure is inherent in the act of “paying the debt.”