To date, the evidence for a general, neurobiological
model of pleasure is compelling and is only growing stronger as more research
is done. How, then, should we
think about the pleasures that animate our lives? Is that wonderful meal, the night of great sex, that
hilarious tipsy night at the bar with your friends all reducible to firing of the ventral tegmental area and dopamine surges? Well, yes and
no. Yes, in the sense that there
seems to be a neural rheostat of reward that's engaged by almost everything we
find pleasurable. No, in the sense
that the activity of the pleasure circuit in isolation is a lifeless pleasure,
a pleasure without color or depth.
What makes pleasure compelling is that, through the interconnection of
the pleasure circuit with other brain regions, we color it with memory, with associations
and emotions and social interactions, with sights, sounds and smells. A circuit-level model of pleasure shows
us what is necessary, but not sufficient.
The transcendence emerges from the web of interconnected sensations and
feelings that the pleasure circuit engages.