Читать книгу The New IQ: Use Your Working Memory to Think Stronger, Smarter, Faster - Tracy Alloway - Страница 48

The human brain is coursing with chemicals that create happy feelings. Two of these feel-good chemicals are the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin. Dopamine is a pleasure and motivation chemical that is released in the brain whenever you do something enjoyable. The quick hit of dopamine produces a short-term feeling of euphoria, which encourages you to repeat the behavior. Serotonin is known as the Zen neurotransmitter because it is associated with feelings of deep and subtle satisfaction and long-term happiness. Serotonin is so critical to happiness that the most commonly prescribed antidepressants work by increasing its level in the brain.

Exciting research is showing some surprising links between working memory and the production of both dopamine and serotonin. One study from researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, used positron emission tomography (PET) scans to investigate the relationship between working memory and dopamine. The first step in this trial was to test the participants’ working memory to identify individuals with high and low working memory. Then both the strong and weak working memory groups underwent PET scans to measure dopamine production in their brains. The researchers found that the brains of participants with good working memory made more dopamine, while those with poor working memory made less.

In another study conducted at the Heinrich-Heine University in Germany by Ruediger Grandt and colleagues, PET scans were used to examine whether there is any link between working memory and serotonin. The study revealed that when participants performed a working memory task that involved remembering a sequence of faces, they experienced an increase of serotonin that participants completing a non–working memory task did not experience. What we find particularly exciting about this study is that it is the act of using working memory that was linked to the surge in serotonin. In other words, simply using your working memory may make you happier. If you are feeling grumpy, you may want to try to engage in activities that use your working memory, to see if that dopamine and serotonin boost can improve your mood.