Go-Getter or Slacker: Brain Chemicals Decide
The
next time your parents complain that you’re a slacker, and not a go-getter
like your sibling, tell them this: it’s your brain’s fault.
Scientists have discovered that different levels of dopamine in three
brain regions determine if a person is a go-getter or a slacker:
Dopamine does different things in different areas of the brain.
So while high levels in some brain regions were associated with a high
work ethic, a spike in another brain region seemed indicate just the
opposite — a person more likely to slack off, even if it meant
smaller monetary rewards."To our surprise, we also found a different region of the
brain, the anterior insula, that showed a strong negative relationship
between dopamine level and willingness to work hard," study researcher
Michael Treadway, graduate student at Vanderbilt University, told LiveScience.
