dopamine motivation

Dopamine primarily drives motivation and the pursuit of goals—not pleasure itself. It helps create the desire and readiness to act toward what you want. 1

• Drive to pursue: Dopamine rises in anticipation of a reward and helps energize action, including physical or mental effort. 2
• Reward and prediction: Dopamine can rise while you anticipate a reward; when the reward arrives, levels generally return toward baseline. Reward prediction error reflects the difference between what you expected and what you actually received. 3
• Motivation versus pleasure: Depleting dopamine can sharply reduce the motivation to pursue a rewarding thing, while leaving the ability to experience pleasure comparatively intact. 4