The sky is my stage, my craft my stagecoach,
I soar above the clouds, a drunken paradox.
My monkey mate by my side, a faithful co-pilot,
Together we navigate the skies, we take off and we fly.
Dopamine, my companion, my guide on this flight,
It signals reward, my mind in a heightened state.
It plays a complex role, but expectation is key,
Just like a paycheck, or the song of an ice cream truck, it sets me free.
Classical conditioning, a lesson learned in the past,
Ivan Pavlov’s dogs salivated, their reaction unsurpassed.
A bell ringing, a signal for a treat to come,
My monkey mate and I, we too are conditioned, our journey has begun.
But dopamine is not just pleasure, it’s also stress,
It’s a neural transmitter that shapes movement and memory, I must confess.
My monkey mate and I, we expect the reward,
A sip of juice, a sip of whiskey, our relationship never to be ignored.
We fly above the clouds, with dopamine as our guide,
Our minds in a heightened state, our senses open wide.
We are the drunken pilots, with monkey mates by our side,
We soar through the skies, our journey never to collide.
My dopaminergic neurons fire, my monkey mate by my side,
We expect the reward, and together we’ll glide.
Through the clouds, through the skies, our journey never ends,
With dopamine as our guide, and monkey mates as our friends.
Inspired by… Dopamine: More than just reward
Monkey Mates and Dopamine
So, a group of monkeys were hanging out in the jungle one day, chatting about their love lives. One particularly amorous monkey was bragging about how many mates he had, when suddenly a pilot crashed his plane nearby.
The monkeys rushed over to see if the pilot was okay, and they found him stumbling around, clearly drunk. One of the monkeys, feeling a bit mischievous, snatched a bottle of booze from the pilot’s hand and took a swig.
Suddenly, the monkey’s brain was flooded with dopamine, and he felt a rush of pleasure unlike anything he had ever experienced. From that moment on, he couldn’t stop thinking about that sweet, sweet dopamine hit, and he spent all his time trying to get his paws on more booze.
The other monkeys just shook their heads and said, “Looks like someone’s got a new mate!”
