Page 20 - Winter2008

how such a drug affects behavior. DOPAMINE: GOAL-ORIENTED BEHAVIOR
In the “elevated zero maze” (Figure 3), rats The endocannabinoids not only regulate the HPA axis; they also
are held high off the ground and are given the regulate dopamine production in the brain. Dopamine concentrations or-
opportunity to stay in closed spaces or explore dinarily increase in response to novel or pleasurable experiences, but this
open spaces. This test evaluates the internal increase can be completely abolished by feeding rats a drug that blocks
conflict the rat experiences between its fear of the cannabinoid receptor. 23
predators and its desire to explore its environ- Dopamine has traditionally been seen as a “reward” stimulus. If rats
ment. The higher the level of anxiety, the more are required to do work to obtain a highly palatable food, they will cease
the rat will run from its fears and stay in the doing the work if researchers deplete them of dopamine through surgery
closed spaces; the lower the level of anxiety, or drugs. Researchers initially concluded from this finding that, in the
the more the rat will confront its challenges and absence of dopamine, the food is no longer pleasurable. Several lines of
explore the open spaces. Rats on an ordinary evidence have developed over the last two decades, however, that refute
lab chow diet will spend only twenty percent of the simplistic understanding of dopamine as a reward molecule and show
the time in open spaces, but rats given the drug instead that dopamine provides the motivation to sustain consistent, goal-
used in the previous experiment, which raises the oriented effort over time. When dopamine levels drop, animals become
level of natural endocannabinoids, will spend up less future-oriented and more present-oriented and are only willing to do
to forty or sixty percent of the time in the open work that will obtain an immediate reward. 24
spaces. This finding suggests that the levels One of the most often-used experiments in this line of research is called
22
of endocannabinoids achieved in the brain on a the concurrent choice procedure. In it, rats are given the choice between
“normal” diet can, at least in rats, be increased a regular food that they can obtain freely and a preferred food that they
in order to produce less anxiety-driven and more can only obtain by pressing a lever. Dopamine depletion does not change
productive behavior. the rat’s preference for the preferred food if the lever-pressing is not re-

DOPAMINE, TIME PREFERENCE, AND THE HOUSING BUBBLE

The hormonal system of the body has a self-regulating mechanism called homeostasis. Because homeostasis is the
complex product of many interacting feedback systems, trying to control a specific component of the system with a drug
often works for a time but eventually stops working or produces adverse effects because the drug fails to address the
nutrient shortage or toxic factor to which the process of homeostasis is reacting.
Societies engage in homeostasis as well. Economists of the Austrian school call the phenomenon of future-orienta-
tion or present-orientation that appears to be regulated by dopamine “time preference” and consider it one of the key
homeostatic regulators of society’s allocation of resources. A high time preference means one is present-oriented, whereas
a low time preference means one is future-oriented. Dopamine depletion in rats, then, increases time preference.
When people become more future-oriented and their time preference decreases, they save a greater portion of their
income. When they deposit that portion into a savings account, more money is available for loans and the interest rate,
which is the price of borrowing money, decreases. Large loans required for long-term production of high-priced goods
such as houses are thus more available. Since people save more money when they are preparing to buy a house in the
future, the interest rate acts as a homeostatic factor that communicates the reduced time preference and increased fu-
ture-orientation to investors. Investors take out larger loans to build houses, expecting that the saved money will be used
to purchase them once they are built.
Our monetary system, however, does not allow this homeostatic regulation to take place. When the government
creates digital money out of thin air, the supply of money increases and the interest rate decreases without anyone ever
having saved a penny. Investors still take out loans to build houses, but the hoped-for buyers never decreased their time
preference, never increased their future-orientation, never saved their money, and simply will not be able to afford to
purchase the houses that are being built. When buyers and sellers finally realize this, the housing boom is revealed to be a
housing bubble and the bubble bursts. More “drugs” can be added to treat the side effects of the monetary inflation—for
example, subsidies can be offered to government-sponsored mortgage entities that will offer loans to people who cannot
afford them—but the overmedication of society has the same disastrous consequences as the overmedication of the
body. The current financial crisis demonstrates this fact quite clearly.
The natural treatment for society is to return to future-orientation and reduced-time preference by cultivating a culture
of responsible saving and by supplying nutrient-dense animal fats that help support adequate production of dopamine,
which allows us to sustain effort over time in pursuit of our future goals.
20 Wise Traditions WINTER 2008