From: gts (gts@optexinc.com)
Date: Thu Sep 19 2002 - 18:31:05 MDT
Interesting article here by Desmond Morris (author of the
ground-breaking book, _The Naked Ape_) about human motivation:
www.corp.aventis.com/future/fut0103/human_motivation/human_motivation_1.
htm
Morris writes: "If you look at the different kinds of animals, you find
that they can be divided into two main types - those that are inactive
for most of the time and those that are always busy. To give them
titles, they can be classified as 'specialists' and 'opportunists.'"
Humans by this definition are opportunists... we are born with no
important specialized skills and so it is not in our best interest to
sit still even when we are seemingly content and well-fed. As
opportunists we have a genetic propensity to keep busy, to hunt, and in
greater terms to *seek novelty*. We find the experience of novelty
rewarding, and for this reason we are motivated to seek it. Curiosity is
in our genes.
Separately from this article, I am aware of experiments in mice that
show that mice too are rewarded by novelty. As in humans, the experience
of novelty is associated in mice with increased dopaminergic activity in
the nucleus accumbens, which is in turn associated very closely with all
rewarding experiences (and is likely the root source of those
experiences). To some extent or another, we are all addicted to the
effects of dopamine in the mesolimbic system of the brain. Sex, food,
addictive drugs, novel experiences, risk-taking, the discovery of warmth
and shelter, the receipt of money... these are some of the many
rewarding experiences that are known to cause increased dopaminergic
activity in the nucleus accumbens. One might say that the desire for the
pleasurable effect of dopamine in the mid-brain is the primary
motivation behind all human behavior.
-gts
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