How to Control Your Sense of Pain & Pleasure

About this video

Huberman explains pain and pleasure as opposite ends of a continuum rooted in the skin, which he describes as our largest organ and a barrier, sensory surface, and site of decoration. He corrects a common myth: Huberman says dopamine is a molecule of motivation and anticipation, not pleasure, drawing on Wolfram Schultz’s work on reward prediction error. Dopamine, he explains, rises in anticipation of a reward and returns to baseline when the reward arrives, and delivering rewards on an unexpected schedule can yield more dopamine from the process. Later, Huberman discusses so-called psychosomatic phenomena, arguing that everything is neural whether pain follows a wound or has no clear injury, and he describes studies of psychogenic fever in which, he explains, thinking one was injured or infected can generate a true fever through brain areas including the thalamus and the DMH. He also explains that the word syndrome signals that the medical establishment does not understand what is going on, and discusses fibromyalgia in relation to glial activation.

Key takeaways

• Huberman explains dopamine as motivation and anticipation, rising before a reward and falling back at delivery.
• Huberman describes reward prediction error based on Wolfram Schultz’s laboratory work.
• Huberman argues that psychosomatic pain is still neural and should not be dismissed as imaginary.
• Huberman describes psychogenic fever as a real fever with an identifiable neural basis.
• Huberman explains that syndrome means a constellation of symptoms whose underlying cause is not understood.

Episode details: published August 9, 2021 · 291.8K views · 2:16:12 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. The science and protocols described are Andrew Huberman’s, presented for education — not medical advice. Consult a qualified professional before changing your own health practices.

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