Essentials: Controlling Your Dopamine for Motivation, Focus & Satisfaction

Huberman Lab

Scicomm Media

Science, Health & Fitness, Life Sciences

4.8 • 26.2K Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this Huberman Lab Essentials episode, I explain how dopamine regulates motivation and provide science-based tools to help improve focus, discipline and overall drive. I explore how particular activities affect dopamine levels and discuss how the highs, lows and baseline levels of dopamine shape your motivation and long-term satisfaction. I also explain practical strategies to boost dopamine levels, such as deliberate cold exposure, caffeine, effort-based rewards and specific supplements. Whether you're looking to enhance motivation for school, work or daily life, this episode explains how to get and stay motivated while supporting healthy dopamine levels. Read the episode show notes at hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1: https://drinkag1.com/huberman LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/huberman David: https://davidprotein.com/huberman Function: https://functionhealth.com/huberman Timestamps (00:00) Dopamine & Drive (00:33) Neuromodulators; Dopamine Effects, Parkinson’s Disease; Brain Circuits (03:36) Motivation & Dopamine Levels (04:55) Sponsors: AG1 & LMNT (07:29) Subjective Experience & Dopamine, Activities that Increase Dopamine (10:55) Dopamine Highs, Lows & Baseline; Evolutionary Context, Addiction (16:16) Dopamine Reward Prediction Error, Tool: Intermittent Rewards (18:16) Caffeine & Dopamine; Tool: Yerba Mate & Protecting Dopamine Neurons (19:40) Sponsor: David (20:53) Amphetamine, Cocaine & Challenges for Learning (22:22) Tool: Increase Dopamine & Deliberate Cold Exposure (25:06) Hard Work & Motivation, Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Rewards, Tool: Growth Mindset (30:25) Sponsor: Function (32:04) Experiences & Shifting Perception, Dopamine Balance (33:17) Compounds to Increase Dopamine: Wellbutrin, L-Tyrosine, PEA, Alpha-GPC (36:54) Social Connection; Recap & Key Takeaways Disclaimer & Disclosures Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Huberman Lab Essentials, where we revisit past episodes for the most potent and actionable science-based tools for mental health, physical health, and performance.
0:11.6	I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine.
0:17.7	Today, we are going to talk all about dopamine and what drives you to do the things
0:22.4	that you do. We're going to talk about motivation and desire and craving, but also how dopamine
0:29.6	relates to satisfaction and our feelings of well-being. So let's talk about dopamine. If ever you've
0:35.5	interacted with somebody who just doesn't seem to have any drive,
0:39.2	they've given up,
0:40.8	or if you've interacted with somebody
0:42.3	who seems to have endless drive and energy,
0:45.1	what you are looking at there
0:47.0	in those two circumstances is without question,
0:50.8	a difference in the level of dopamine circulating in their system.
0:55.0	Dopamine is what we call a neuromodulator.
0:57.6	Neuromodulators are different than neurotransmitters.
1:00.1	Neurotransmitters are involved in the dialogue between neurons
1:03.6	whereas neuromodulators influence the communication
1:07.0	of many neurons.
1:08.1	In the nervous system, what this means
1:09.5	is that dopamine release changes the probability
1:12.8	that certain neural circuits will be active
1:15.1	and that other neural circuits will be inactive.
1:19.3	So how does dopamine work and what does it do?
	...

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