Our earliest ancestors displayed bipedalism much before the human brain enlarged in size. The ability to walk on two limbs freed their two other limbs which would help them to create tools to be used in hunting for food. Their ability to develop complex social networks led to better response to external threats and reduced in-fighting for territorial dominance; a feature that exists in almost all the other mammals including monkeys even today. Later, the brain enlargement put paid to any doubts as to who the apex predator in the food chain was going to be. But what exactly changed in the brain?
A study, conducted in 2018 by MA Raghanti and her colleagues (A neurochemical hypothesis for the origin of hominids) focused on the neurochemical profiles of humans and primates as well as apes. The study observed that humans had higher level of serotonin and dopamine and lower levels of acetylcholine than other monkeys. Particularly, humans, gorillas and chimpanzees had higher levels of serotonin which was responsible for better social behavior. Lower acetylcholine made humans display lesser aggression and territorial dominance (must say in today’s times, humans are asserting territorial dominance even with lower acetylcholine, another side effect of evolution). It’s the significant higher level of dopamine in humans that may explain the weird behavior of those reeling in the effect of reels.
Fig-2 – Composition of a neuron
All the above mentioned names are neurotransmitters that are released by our body. Dopamine release provides a sense of pleasure and relaxation. Our brain contains neurons which receive the external stimulus (shall stick here again to short clips/reels) through dendrons(its smaller branches are called dendrites) ,generate the electric impulse in the cell body and the impulse travels through the axon(to give an analogy, dendron is the mouth which receives, cell body is the gut which processes the input and axon is the one which ejects) .At the tip of these axon are small sacs which release the pleasure giving dopamine that releases into the empty spaces between neighboring neurons and thus help relay the message further on. So, imagine a relay race, neurons are the sprinters and dopamine is the baton. Dopamine, serotonin etc are the bridges on information highway to the brain conveying pleasure to it. The brains of monkeys also release dopamine, but as their brains are not developed, the stimuli releasing that dopamine are limited.
The release mainly happens on three accounts, fulfillment of primary needs like food and water, in response to a new stimulus and reward based conditioning on completion of tasks. The latter two are beyond their control. No one is giving a performance for them in the jungles and those at the tourist spots need to be carefully studied for release of dopamine or any other anxiety induced hormone. Task based dopamine release is studied for monkeys under experimental research and the reward received on completion of task is the cause of dopamine surge. However, humans giving rewards to them are doing it for specific purpose and with zero chance of prolonged continuity. Left on their own, monkeys depend on their primary needs and social interaction with their immediate family for their dopamine dose and may be once in a while on spotting cute tiger cubs without their mother.
There are two notable features here, the stimuli (other than those of primary needs) are external and not self-induced. Second, these stimuli may or may not arrive at regular time intervals, conditioning them for patience to await their next high. In my childhood, we had only Doordarshan(DD) channel to watch programs on. The channel would go blank from midnight to 6.00 am in the morning. I still remember, for the first 3 months, me and my brother used to put on the TV before 6.00 am waiting patiently for the blank, dotted screen to come alive with DD’s opening music piece. You’ve got to be kidding me! right? Certainly not. We have played hopscotch with stone pieces on mud and happily bled though our feet, not with fingers on phone. Hopscotch on phone !! my turn to say, you kidding me? Coming back to the point, the stimulus of channel coming alive was external and not self-induced and it came after large time gap. The kids then were happy just at that; one channel, happy watching whatever is shown, not craving for more, patiently waiting for next round of exhilaration. The word patience has been erased from the lexicon of children, adolescents and youth now.
The dopamine dope lab works non-stop. The varied and unpredictable entertainment produced on these short-timed entertainment nuggets leads to continuous firing of this neurotransmitter in our neurons. The stimuli are self-induced and coming fast and furious, they should be …we aren’t monkeys after all! The brain steadily works itself up and gets used to fast paced, attention grabbing stimuli. It doesn’t need to grasp complex topics, learning of higher level to get the same high of achievement and pleasure associated with that achievement. Watch a T-20 and get over with it in a 4-hour gallop rather than a 5-day slow burn baby walk. The brain has been pick pocketed of its two most important valuables: concentration and patience. The connection between the loss of these two and rise in ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is palpable. Symptoms of ADHD are lack of focus, restlessness and impulsive behavior. The brain has surrendered to the idea of grasping and processing complex and even elementary concepts into useful information and storing it.
Besides, this continuous dopamine imbalance leads to anxiety, sleeplessness, depression, inactivity which is less of body’s retaliation to brain and more of self-flagellation (whipping itself). Everything requires time. Life is long, why clip the entertainment. Self-realization takes time. Realizing the type of pleasure, you must keep in your life itself requires time. More importantly, some forms of entertainment require elaborate passage of time …really.
Like going on an unexplored trail, like sitting on a river bank with closed eyes and listening to the sound of water, like getting down a dusty box from the attic and retrieving the album to get lost in the maze of old memories till the moisture in your eyes and smile on your lips render your brain numb, like watching an old classic movie.
It’s just not the youth, even adults who have led a prior life of lesser interference of digital entertainment are getting hooked to this. However, they are better positioned for a ‘dopamine detox’ than the youth. How often do we fiddle with our phones even when performing activities that require our complete attention? The brain seeks constant distraction from the task at hand. We need to introspect with simple questions: Is this entertainment worth my time and mental effort? How can I replace it with meaningful, enriching forms of entertainment? Can I control the impulse and delay the next shot of dopamine by maintaining my concentration and patience? Can I set up a reward based mechanism of seeking pleasure on achieving goals/completing tasks? Should I be a monkey?