To John Salamone, professor of psychology and longtime
researcher of the brain chemical dopamine, scientific research
can be very slow-moving. “It takes a long time for things to
change in science,” he says. “It’s like pulling on the steering
wheel of an ocean liner, then waiting for the huge ship to
slowly turn.” Salamone, a UConn Board of Trustees Distinguished
Professor, has spent most of his career battling a particular
long-held scientific idea: the popular notion that high levels
of brain dopamine are related to experiences of pleasure. As
increasing numbers of studies show, he says, the famous
neurotransmitter is not responsible for pleasure, but has to do
with motivation. He summarizes and comments on the evidence for
this shift in thinking in a Nov. 8 review in the Cell Press
journal Neuron. In the early 1980’s, explains Salamone, the
National Institute on Drug Abuse put out a call for research on
the neurological basis for drug abuse and addiction. The
research that ensued built support for the idea