Dopamine Neurons Map Future Rewards, Not Just Past Ones

How to Balance Dopamine Effects in Your Body

Medically reviewed by Kelly Wood, MDBehaviors, habits, and even foods may help balance your body's response to dopamine, a neurotransmitter (chemical messenger that promotes communication between nerves). Dopamine helps regulate muscle movement and contributes to positive feedback that gives an emotional sense of satisfaction and contentment.Jump to Key Takeaways.The Good Brigade / Getty Images You can increase dopamine through healthy diet, exe…

Dopamine Neurons Map Future Rewards, Not Just Past Ones

Populations of dopamine neurons don't simply signal reward prediction errors—they encode rich maps of possible future outcomes, including when and how much a reward might be. This diverse, adaptable neural code mirrors cutting-edge AI strategies known as distributional reinforcement learning.

How Scientists Turned the World’s Problems into Games: The Deep Power of Reinforcement Learning

In a world facing increasingly complex challenges—climate change, supply chain crises, pandemic response, and even social policy—scientists have begun using a surprising tool to engineer solutions: games. But not just any games. Through the lens of reinforcement learning (RL), a branch of artificial intelligence inspired by behavioral psychology, researchers are reframing real-world problems as strategic decision-making environments, where machi…