Dopamine

A neurotransmitter, a chemical responsible for sending messages between the brain and different nerve cells of the body. Dopamine is produced in different areas of the brain, and affects different bodily functions, such as movement, memory, sleep, mood, pleasurable reward, behavior and cognition. Dopamine has been identified as the body’s reward activator, controlling the pleasure center of our brain while encouraging us to engage in thrill-seeking activities. Though some of these activities (eating, sex, etc.) physiologically stimulate dopamine for us to survive, drugs can cause great surges in dopamine, hence the body seeks more of the drug to continue the reward cycle.