Pleasure Map

[Andrew Dinn]

jporter writes:

> Terribly interesting article in todays NY Times, Science Section: The
> neuronal circuit involved in addiction- alcohol, coke, heroin, the pleasure
> is all yours-  the same structures and the same interconnections forming
> the same pleasure circuit is involved in mediating the addictive effects
> all of these. It can be related to the same area in rats, which when
> self-stimulated via electrode proves more appealing than food, water, etc.

> So, at some time in the pre-dawn of consciousness, creatures became aware
> that they were satisfied, instead of merely being satisfied (fed, hydrated,
> etc.). Satiety became centralized, and handled by a separate circuit, i.e.,
> the beginnings of a neuronal bureaucracy in charge of consciousness.

Don't get this this theory even on its own evolutionary terms, never
mind baulking at the misappropriation of mental language to describe
raw physiology (although maybe therein lies the root of the evil). How
would it be useful to an animal to be `satisfied' yet not be aware
that it is satisfied i.e. have its behaviour thereby modified?
Contrariwise, if its behaviour is modified then it is in some sense
`aware' of it's own `satisfaction'. So, you could never have a
`pleasure circuit' which was not also involved in `mediating' the
effcts of pleasurable stimuli.

I choose to characterise the nett result in behavioural terms but, of
course, the neural plumbers amongst us may equally dream of
transmitters sluicing down CNS pathways. Whichever, the dilemma is
either that your `satisfaction' is - to quote LW - `a wheel that does
not turn' or *by definition* part of a neural control mechanism.


Andrew Dinn
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And though Earthliness forget you,
To the stilled Earth say:  I flow.
To the rushing water speak:  I am.