How Dopamine & Serotonin Shape Decisions, Motivation & Learning | Dr. Read Montague

Dr. Read Montague, PhD, is a professor and director of the Center for Human Neuroscience Research at Virginia Tech’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute and an expert in how dopamine and serotonin shape human learning, motivation and decision-making. We discuss how they impact focused effort in the context of short- and long-term goals of all kinds. Also, how SSRIs and low-effort, high-engagement activities reduce the rewarding properties of dopamine, and how AI algorithms are revolutionizing understanding of the brain.

Articles

• Learning to predict by the methods of temporal differences (Machine Learning)
• A Theory of Pavlovian Conditioning: Variations in the Effectiveness of Reinforcement and Nonreinforcement (Classical Conditioning II: Current Research and Theory)
• Bee foraging in uncertain environments using predictive hebbian learning (Nature)
• Octopamine and tyramine dynamics predict learning rate phenotypes during associative conditioning in honey bees (bioRxiv)
• A framework for mesencephalic dopamine systems based on predictive Hebbian learning (The Journal of Neuroscience)
• Addiction as a computational process gone awry (Science)
• Corelease of dopamine and serotonin from striatal dopamine terminals (Neuron)
• State-specific gating of salient cues by midbrain dopaminergic input to basal amygdala (Nature Neuroscience)
• Opponent control of reinforcement by striatal dopamine and serotonin (Nature)
• Extraneous factors in judicial decisions (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

Books

• The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
• Complete Collection of Fyodor Dostoevsky‍
• Your Brain Is (Almost) Perfect

Other Resources

• AlphaGo
• AlphaFold
• Google DeepMind
• Nobel Prize for Computational Protein Design
• NebulaNeuro
• Claude
• Grok
• Andrew trains back with Dorian Yates
• Long Strange Trip

Huberman Lab Episodes Mentioned

• Dr. Terry Sejnowski: How to Improve at Learning Using Neuroscience & AI
• Dr. Jonathan Haidt: How Smartphones & Social Media Impact Mental Health & the Realistic Solutions
• Healthy Eating & Eating Disorders - Anorexia, Bulimia, Binging

People Mentioned

• Ivan Pavlov: physiologist, Nobel laureate
• Rich Sutton: Professor of Computer Science, University of Alberta
• Andrew Barto: Professor of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Stephen Bartlett: podcaster, entrepreneur
• Christina Zelano: Professor of Neurology, Northwestern University
• Matt Walker: Professor of Psychology, UC Berkeley
• Brian Johnson: entrepreneur, author
• Geoffrey Schoenbaum: Chief, Behavioral Neurophysiology Neuroscience Section, NIDA
• Robert Bina: Professor of Neurosurgery, University of Arizona
• Vilayanur Ramachandran: Professor of Psychology, UC San Diego
• Geoffrey Hinton: Professor of Computer Science, University of Toronto, Nobel laureate
• Arthur Jones: Nautilus founder