Science at UM [S04-ep16]: The Hidden Sides of Dopamine
This week on "Science at UM," Jérémie Naudé, a researcher at theIGF reveals the hidden workings of dopamine. The report takes us to Eurostim and our last-minute guest, Ana Palacios, shares the program for the upcoming Oreme conference. A show airing every Wednesday on Divergence FM 93.9.
We’ve all had this experience: asking a dog to give a paw, rewarding it with a treat, and then repeating the process until the dog offers its paw on its own to get the treat. We all understand that the dog is simply repeating a habit it learned through reward. Now let’s consider another example: cigarettes. Here again, we know that cigarettes create a nicotine addiction that drives us to return to this product time and again. But how can we understand that a former smoker who has overcome their physical addiction might, years later, feel an irresistible urge to smoke upon hearing good or bad news, or simply when finding themselves in a particular situation?
In both cases, dopamine—a neurotransmitter long dubbed the “pleasure molecule”—plays a role. While scientists already understand dopamine’s role in learning, they also know that in certain contexts, dopamine can motivate us or prompt us to take certain actions, without fully understanding the mechanisms at play. This is a puzzle that Jérémie Naudé, a researcher at the Institute of Functional Genomics in Montpellier, has been working on. In an article published inNature Communications titled “Dopamine builds and reveals reward-associated latent behavioral attractors,” he and his team propose a new theory about dopamine, based on the concept of latent attractors.
In the second half of the program, we’ll take you to the Euromov laboratory to visit the Eurostim platform, where researchers are studying the effects of electric and magnetic fields on the brain.
Finally, our last-minute guest will be Ana Palacios, who will introduce us to the upcoming lecture on February 11 at Planet Océan, titled*The Cosmic Forge of the Elements: A Journey to the Heart of the Stars with an Astronomer*.
At UM Science, you’ve got the program—let’s get started!
Co-production: Divergence FM / University of Montpellier
Host: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interview: Lucie Lecherbonnier / Aline Périault
Reporting and editing: Aline Périault
Director: Bruno Bertrand
Tune in to the show “A l’UM la science” on Divergence FM 93.9
