# brain: like a Zazen entity, mice can spontaneously self-modulate cortical dopamine impulses to reward.

AA << recently set out to investigate less understood aspects related to spontaneous impulses of dopamine. Their results, (..) have shown that mice can willfully manipulate (..) random dopamine pulses. >>

<< Rather than only occurring when presented with pleasurable, or reward-based expectations, (..) the neocortex in mice is flooded with unpredictable impulses of dopamine that occur approximately once per minute. >>️

<< mice on a treadmill received a reward if they showed they were able to control the impromptu dopamine signals. Not only were mice aware of these dopamine impulses, the data revealed, but the results confirmed that they learned to anticipate and volitionally act upon a portion of them. >>️️

<< Critically, mice learned to reliably elicit (dopamine) impulses prior to receiving a reward, (..) These effects reversed when the reward was removed. We posit that spontaneous dopamine impulses may serve as a salient cognitive event in behavioral planning. (..) We further conjecture that an animal's sense of spontaneous dopamine impulses may motivate it to search and forage in the absence of known reward-predictive stimuli, >> the researchers noted.️

'Feel good' brain messenger can be willfully controlled, new study reveals. University of California, San Diego. Jul 23, 2021. 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210723121512.htm

Conrad Foo, Adrian Lozada, et al. Reinforcement learning links spontaneous cortical dopamine impulses to reward. Current Biology. doi: 10.1016/ j.cub.2021.06.069. Jul 23, 2021. 

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(21)00898-8

Also

keywords 'dopamine' and 'meditation' in PUBMED

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=dopamine+meditation