Comment · Sun, February 2, 2014 · Ceretropic
Pet Theory about Exercise, Dopamine and Motivation
Original post in this thread
[deleted] · 14 points
I've read from several sources that exercise is good for depression, for giving you more energy, focus, etc. Several recent studies support this idea. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be that much of an explanation available as to why this is, other than "exercise is good for you". Now, I'm not a neuroscientist, merely a computer scientist who's interested in the brain. As such, I'll acknowledge that my theories might be approaching the realm of "broscience". I still believe these thoughts are worth sharing.
Dopamine has many roles in the brain, but one of them is linked to motivation and energy. It seems that dopamine is involved in "gating" outputs in the motor cortex. Your brain can simultaneously produce many possible ideas of movements or sequences of movements that you could make, some more likely than others. Higher levels of dopamine lower the threshold required for these movements to be executed. Higher levels of dopamine literally make it so you need less willpower to execute a movement, to get out of bed and work out. If your levels of dopamine are low, you will only execute movement ideas that your brain makes extremely salient. For example, when you're hungry, t…
What they were answering
[deleted] · 2 points
Seems that norepinephrine makes your body actually mobilize the energy (e.g.: liberate it from fat cells, make your heart beat faster). High-levels of adrenalin on their own don't make me feel very motivated though. Mostly just uncomfortable.
It's likely that if you have low levels of adrenalin, you can't work out as hard, can't spend as much energy without being exhausted, and so your brain would adapt your dopamine mechanisms to make it harder for you to spend that energy.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
Adrenaline is not the same thing as norepinephrine. NE is used as a neurotransmitter, whereas epinephrine is not. This means that NE does have a lot of mental effects that deal with alertness, arousal, and the reward pathways. So norepinephrine definitely plays a role in motivation and mood.