The Compass of Pleasure: How Our Brains Make Fatty Foods, Orgasm, Exercise, Marijuana, Generosity, Vodka, Learning, and Gambling Feel So Good

by David J. Linden

A leading brain scientist's look at the neurobiology of pleasure-and how pleasures can become addictions.

Whether eating, taking drugs, engaging in sex, or doing good deeds, the pursuit of pleasure is a central drive of the human animal. In The Compass of Pleasure Johns Hopkins neuroscientist David J. Linden explains how pleasure affects us at the most fundamental level: in our brain.

As he did in his award-winning book, The Accidental Mind, Linden combines cutting-edge science with entertaining anecdotes to illuminate the source of the behaviors that can lead us to ecstasy but that can easily become compulsive. Why are drugs like nicotine and heroin addictive while LSD is not? Why has the search for safe appetite suppressants been such a disappointment? The Compass of Pleasure concludes with a provocative consideration of pleasure in the future, when it may be possible to activate our pleasure circuits at will and in entirely novel patterns.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Science, Neuroscience, Health, Brain, Audiobook

240 pages, Hardcover

First published April 14, 2010

About the author

David J. Linden, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His laboratory has worked for many years on the cellular substrates of memory storage in the brain and a few other topics. He has a longstanding interest in scientific communication and served for many years as the Chief Editor of the Journal of Neurophysiology. He is the author of two bestselling books on the biology of behavior for a general audience, The Accidental Mind (Harvard/Belknap, 2007) and The Compass of Pleasure (Viking Press, 2011) which, to date, have been translated into 14 languages. His most recent book, Touch: The Science of Hand, Heart and Mind will be published by Viking Press (USA/Canada) on January 28, 2015

He lives in Baltimore, Maryland with his two pleasure-seeking children.

Reviews

[Riku Sayuj · Rating 4 out of 5]

"So am I as the rich whose blessèd key
Can bring him to his sweet up-lockèd treasure,
The which he will not every hour survey,
For blunting the fine point of seldom pleasure."

Plato’s Compass

In The Republic and elsewhere, Socrates (or Plato, let us not get into technicalities here) repeatedly mentions ‘Temperance’ (or Moderation) as a principle virtue and vehemently condemns the seeking of pleasure - this eventually gave rise to the Stoic School, and of the philosophic abnegation of pleasure.

But it might be worthwhile to heed his words a bit more closely and in the light of the latest Neuroscience and Brain Research, no less: Socrates never maintains that pleasure is bad. Instead he asserts that temperance and a life of philosophy is more pleasurable than the other pleasures which most men seem to spend their life pursuing.

This effectively means that Socrates was saying that temperance and a life dedicated to virtue and philosophy i.e. knowledge is literally more pleasurable, and not just superior as a virtue or a moral standpoint. And this is what philosophy or love of wisdom means - it is not just the seeking of wisdom/ideas/knowledge but love - something you love doing.

This then brings us to The Compass of Pleasure addressed in this book and about how it might be that Socrates and his philosophers have a well-calibrated compass, much better than what most men have. A super power! (Don’t worry, we will come to this soon)

This Compass we have been harping about, of course, is our brain’s Pleasure Center - which is the principal tool which our brain has at its disposal to drive learning behavior - both behavioral and cognitive. We are taught what to do by our brain by rewards given through our pleasure center - little dopamine santa-gifts for being a good boy/girl and doing what the brain would like us to do.

Now, if this compass doesn’t work properly, the brain will reward us for all the wrong things/accomplishments and we will end up doing/pursuing the wrong things and deriving pleasure out of them and so on and so forth - the classic vicious cycle.

On the other hand if we derive pleasure from the right things, we can have the virtuous cycle, instead - which was exactly what Socrates (without the aid of ECGs) was advocating all along - to derive pleasure from the seeking of knowledge, from the pursuit of ideas, of wisdom.



[ Click here to expand the graphic >> Included here so that this tangential review can have a concrete connection to the book being reviewed. ]

Understanding the biological basis of pleasure leads us to fundamentally rethink the sort of cravings we have, are indulged, are being exposed to and how there could be industries that manipulate these pleasures in the marketplace. It also calls for a reformation in our concepts of such virtuous and prosocial behaviors as sharing resources, self-deprivation, and the drive for knowledge - of our virtues and of our vices.

We are then forced to question our basic method of the ‘pursuit of happiness’ itself that is the modern ideal of life.

And this is because, the dark side of pleasure is, of course, addiction: It is now becoming clear that addiction is associated with long-lasting changes in the electrical, morphological, and biochemical functions of neurons and synaptic connections within the (medial forebrain/VTA) pleasure circuit. There are strong suggestions that these changes underlie many of the terrifying aspects of addiction, including tolerance (needing successively larger doses to get high), craving, withdrawal, and relapse. Again, take care to think beyond conventional definitions of addiction - anything that delivers pleasure and modifies behavior has addictive potential.

More than this ‘addiction’, there is another force responsible for experience-driven changes (or learning) within the brain’s pleasure circuits — The combination of associative learning and pleasure has created nothing less than a cognitive miracle: We can be motivated by pleasure to achieve goals that are entirely arbitrary - goals that may or may not have an evolutionary adaptive value. These can be as wide-ranging as reality-based television and shoe-shopping. For us humans, even mere ideas can activate the pleasure circuit.

Our eclecticism where pleasure is concerned serves to make our human existence wonderfully rich and complex. And also dangerous.

The Socratic Superpower

Experiments suggest that ideas/knowledge are also like addictive drugs. As is shown in the book, certain psychoactive drugs co-opt the pleasure circuit to engage pleasurable feelings normally triggered by food, sex, and so on. In our recent evolutionary lineage, abstract mental constructs have become able to engage the pleasure circuitry as well, a phenomenon that has reached its fullest expression in our own species.

The neuroscientist Read Montague, calls the human ability to take pleasure in abstract ideas a “superpower”.

And that was exactly the superpower Socrates gave his life exhorting us to cultivate, in place of the other pleasures that we were getting addicted to even back then.

Instead, we have cultivated a highly conditioned Pavlovian society that is built on addictive pleasure that is neither rich, nor complex and definitely not of any real value, i.e. with no learning potential in it:

Pavlov’s Republic

Unfortunately, the conditions in we which have been educating ourselves (via our ‘pleasure center rewards’) is too far removed from the ‘education’ proposed in Republic - one of temperance and virtue. Instead we have a culture that is relentlessly taught to flaunt and consume and derive our pleasure from these shows of our consumption. Literally getting a buzz out of them.

Pathetic addicts is what it has made of us. Whether it be substance addiction or behavioral addiction, it is a hijacking of our pleasure circuits by the commercial culture. Which effectively means that the pleasure center that has driven learning and evolution (and is supposed to continue to into the future) has now been coerced into doing things that harm our brains, our health and our personal happiness. Substituting short bursts of pleasure for long-term satisfaction - a perfect recipe for life-long addiction.

Addiction is always about the next buzz. The anticipation is very pleasurable and we crave for something. But when we get it, it does not give much pleasure and we are already looking ahead to the next shot. This is poignantly similar to the modern condition in which we are always looking at the greener pasture which is never so green when we get there. The anticipation and not the realization drives the rat-race of the day.


In the end, however, thinking about the future of pleasure and thus of society itself, of deciding what sort of pleasure we want to indulge our lives on, comes down to the individual:

If pleasure is as ubiquitous and easy as our advertisements are bent on convincing us, what will happen to our human “superpower” of being able to associate pleasure with abstract ideas? Will it be washed away in a sea of background noise? If pleasure is everywhere, will uniquely human goals still exist? When pleasure is ubiquitous and cheap, what will we then desire?

This hijacking of the pleasure/learning center for purposes other than learning is what is most prevalent today, whether it be in individuals or in society. The most potent learning tool we posses being used for self-destructive purposes is definitely not cool. Superpowers being wasted.

Not cool at all.

True story.

[Stacey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a lot from this text. In fact, the neuroscience basics I learned in this book are now helping me with a very neuroscience-y science fiction book I've just picked up by Catharine Asaro.

This book is actually about more than addictions. It's about brain chemistry and how naturally humans interact with substances and experiences, before the introduction of addiction into the equation. The author writes in a very accessible style - I only got lost in the acronyms and neuron-specific verbs a few times. Most of the time, the author uses very simplified explanations. Illustrations helped me imagine some of the situations he described, while the case studies enhanced the arguments and my understanding of the text. The author's sense of humor adds to the approachability of the text, which is by no means dry or boring. I didn't find all the chapters equally interesting, but they all made some intriguing and thought-provoking arguments.

Things I found difficult about the text included the case studies performed on rats and mice. Normally, I don't care for either of the species, but reading about the lab experiments that are performed on these animals because no ethics advisory/oversight board would ever allow them to be performed on humans, was uncomfortable. Sometimes, the author's sense of humor is jarring, though often I found it funny. Lastly, whether it is this book or neuroscience in general, I found personally challenging the idea that an individual's personality and identity is entirely contained in the chemical, electrical and physical elements of the body.

There was some overlap between the orgasm section of this book and the book by Jared Diamond on the evolution of human sex practices, which I found interesting - they provide slightly different approaches to ultimately similar conclusions concerning the evolution of sex and reproduction in humans and other mammals.

Overall this book seems a very good introduction to neuroscience, pleasure, and addiction. The idea that addiction (to anything, including food, sex, and exercise, among others) is a disease, a sort of chemical imbalance in the brain, is a compelling argument for a different approach to treatment and judgment of addicts and addiction.

[Paul Dayton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Insightful discussions on pleasure, addiction, and societal implications can be found here. The level of scientific language may put off the typical layperson. Reads like an abstract of a scientific paper in some sections, with too much repetition of phrases of substances involved, which is an attempt to be precise but often just clutters the landscape and hinders clean absorption of the material. Historical sections are much more reader-friendly, interesting, and provocative, showing how fluid social morality is, esp. with respect to pleasure-inducing chemicals and activities.

[Radiantflux · Rating 3 out of 5]

22nd book for 2019.

An interesting short book, exploring what is known about the neurobiology of pleasure.

Each chapter acts as a short review of what is known about the neurobiology about a particular behaviour, in particular those that could fall on the addiction/pleasure axis (e.g., drug taking; sex; eating; gambling; exercise; video games; even meditation).

I learnt a lot reading the book, but it's clear once you get outside drug taking, our knowledge of the relevant neural underpinnings of a particular behavior (e.g., exercise) is too rudimentary at the moment to say anything particularly definitive, or even whether it is truly addictive (Linden: sex yes, exercise, perhaps, video games probably not).

The book also felt a little dated (circa 2010) in this very quickly evolving field.

3-stars.

[Robert Fischer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is an excellent book, but not for the faint of heart. It is basically a conversation with a neurophysiologist about how pleasure works, and the author has no problem delving into the jargon, acronyms, and experimental design of neuroscience to get an accurate description across. If you're expecting science writing with the popular accessibility of Mary Roach or even Michael Shermer, you're likely to be disappointed. Because of that, I gave it 3 stars as a "for-the-general-public" rating.

Personally, however, I loved the book. It's not a 5 star book: it won't stand the test of time, and it didn't fundamentally blow my mind. However, if you want to get caught up on the state of addiction and pleasure science as of the book's writing, you've come to the right place. It engages with studies very carefully, including providing detailed-yet-accessible(-ish) experimental design notes and superb footnotes, and the book is extremely careful to present what is and is not actually scientifically known. This makes the book an excellent resource for people who are outside of the neuroscience field but still want to know what is empirically known about addiction and pleasure. It's also a fun read, and despite the jargon and acronyms, it's pretty smooth.

There's also a passing critique of The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist's Case for the Existence of the Soul, which I found interesting. There's also a more in-depth critique of Ray Kurzweil (or at least Ray's timetables).

[Ami Iida · Rating 5 out of 5]

extremely intriguing! essential book and
requiring book

[Richard]

Yet another PopCog book.

They’re coming in so fast and furious now that the New York Times has to review ’em in batches. Check out Is the Brain Good at What It Does? to read reviews of this one, plus two others.

The first, Brain Bugs: How the Brain’s Flaws Shape Our Lives gets a pretty nice review, but I’d already learned of it from NPR. The second, Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn gets slammed royally.

But The Compass of Pleasure, because of it’s focus on the dopamine system, sounds intriguing enough I might actually pick it up.

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

I should have been a neuroscientist. I love this stuff so much! Linden does a great job here of explaining without either oversimplifying or obfuscating. I learned a lot about the pleasure circuitry of the brain. Perhaps my favorite bit was near the end, where Linden takes on Kurzweil's singularity as it relates to the brain. I wish there was more on exercise, of course, but it's not Linden's fault that the measuring is so damnably fuzzy that it's difficult to come up with data. This book made my dopamine levels fluctuate madly. I recommend it.

[Erich Franz Linner-Guzmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one. I find books about the brain and why we do what we do fascinating. This book also mentioned addiction which is another subject that is fascinating to me. This book does a really good job in explain both.

[Todd N · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book in Idaho Falls on my way to a camping/biking vacation. That was a few years ago.

This is a very slim book, but there is a lot of information about the latest scientific findings related to the pleasure circuits in our brains (and the brains of mice, rats, and various monkeys).

It turns out that all of the drugs that we know and love, like heroin, cocaine, nicotine, THC, caffeine, and speed, directly affect the pleasure centers of our brain. And depending on how these drugs are ingested and how often, they can rewire your pleasure circuits in a way that you become addicted to them.

No matter the drug, addiction follows a pretty standard progression: pleasure, increased tolerance, craving, withdrawal, and (usually) relapse. In this book Dr. Linden sketches out the insights into the physiology of these stages. The tools used to measure the brain are pretty crude (and horrifying if you are a lab animal), but the first glimpses of how this part of the brain works are starting to come into focus.

But the book isn't really about addiction; it's about stuff that humans and lab animals like to do. This includes eating (of course), having sex, socializing (except for me), and gambling. It ends with a look at some surprising things that activate the pleasure center of the brain like donating money and even abstract ideas.

This book gave me plenty to chew on. I'm reading his other book now, The Accidental Brain.

I'm unsure how accessible this book is to "lay" readers. I don't have much biology or chemistry background, so I was a little lost when he would toss out the names of specific areas of the brain or specific neurotransmitters. You can still get the gist of what is happening, and there is an index if you need to go back to reread something. It's probably best to read this with some postit notes on the inside cover and a pen in hand.

[Emanuela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Con tutta probabilità la parola che si ripete con maggior frequenza nel testo è: dopamina. E' il principale neurotrasmettitore responsabile dello stato di piacere ma, come una principessina capricciosa e viziata, tiene tutto il sistema in scacco. La sua mancanza o il suo eccesso portano a disequilibri comportamentali in cui il piacere diventa necessità, creando dipendenza.

Questo testo spiega con precisione scientifica e spesso con la simpatia dell'autore, le ultime indagini su animali e sull'uomo, soprattutto con le tecniche di imaging, riguardo le ultime scoperte delle neuroscienze sull'argomento, sfatando anche luoghi comuni e modalità terapeutiche del tutto inutili ma che illudono molti abitanti del pianeta che vogliono uscire dalle dipendenze più devastanti che sono "I quattro dopaminieri della neurocalisse", ovvero l'obesità, la tossicodipendenza, quella sessuale e del gioco d'azzardo. Ma si parla anche di sport, videogame, Internet, metitazione; nessuna attività umana è esclusa.

La lettura è interessantissima non solo per gli addetti ai lavori perché quella della ricerca del piacere è una condizione del tutto trasversale ed universale e le dipendenze si insinuano subdolamente in ciascuno di noi, indipendentemente dalla nostra volontà, perché a volte si manifestano anche per fattori genetici.

Consigliatissimo.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Linden was the chair of my thesis committee, so perhaps part of my enjoyment of this book was the vivid, imagined sense of his witty teaching style and mannerisms as I was reading. In his writing as in real life, Linden is casual and joking but with an undercurrent of intense enthusiasm and precision.

The Compass of Pleasure was a fantastic introduction to the brain circuitry underlying our ability to feel pleasure and an astute scientific discussion of how the ability to feel pleasure guides the way that we behave and live our lives. Linden weaves in historical research as well as cutting edge findings and, for me, hits the perfect balance of getting into the details of particular experiments and yet also offering an over distillation of the state of the field. A fair bit of philosophical reflection finds its place in the work as well as Linden explores how we should approach phenomena such as addiction given what we are learning about how the brain functions.

The Compass of Pleasure does a great job of making complex scientific concepts accessible and I believe that the book would be highly informative and enjoyable for a non-scientist. Yet, it was full of enough scientific detail and compelling discussion that, even as a neuroscientist, I found it very educational.

[Jacopo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Libro affascinante. Sarà che mi lascio catturare facilmente da questi argomenti, ma davvero non riuscivo a smettere di leggere.

Essenzialmente l'autore spiega nel dettaglio come e perché proviamo piacere, in che modo sia quest'ultimo a guidare ogni nostra azione volontaria, dal mangiare un piatto di pasta, al fare beneficenza, passando per il sesso. Dalla ricerca del piacere alla dipendenza il passo è però molto breve, viene quindi spiegato in che modo si sviluppa una dipendenza e analizzati i suoi vari stadi.

Lo stile è davvero piacevole, a tratti colloquiale (a volte mi ha fatto persino ridere), ma riesce a diventare molto complesso nello spiegare il funzionamento delle dinamiche del piacere a livello biologico. In sostanza, se non siete avvezzi a questi argomenti e non avete un vocabolario tecnico, potreste passare dal divorare pagine su pagine ridacchiando, al rileggere un paragrafo tre volte per essere sicuri di comprenderlo appieno.

Nel complesso, direi che merita 4 stelle.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read on the subject of why we find things pleasurable and also why some become addicted, whether it be drugs, alcohol, food. Pitched at just the right level to be accessible to both readers with a background in science and those without.

[Doa'a Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

"المتعة في الواقع بوصلة واحدة تخدم وظائفنا العقلية، وتوجهنا نحو الفضائل والرذائل، أما الألم فهو البوصلة الأخرى. ولدينا الآن رغم ذلك سبب يدعونا للاعتقاد بأنهما ليسا طرفي سلسلة واحدة. فليس الألم غريم المتعة؛ إنما غريم المتعة هو الملل ونقص الاهتمام في الأحاسيس والتجارب، وغريم الحب هو اللامبالاة وليست الكراهية. ولا يتوجب عليك أن تكون متعطشا للجنس السادومازوخي كي تعرف أن المتعة والألم يمكن الإحساس بهما في وقت واحد، وتذكر بحث بويكر وزملائه عن الألم والمتعة اللذان يشعر بهما عداؤو المسافات الطويلة، أو الأمهات خلال ولادتهن. ويحمل كل من المتعة والألم ميزة مهمة في قاموس علم الأعصاب الإدراكي، وهي تجربة من التجارب المهمة التي تستحق الاهتمام. والعواطف هي عملة هذه الميزة المهمة، فكل من المشاعر الإيجابية (مثل النشوة والحب) والمشاعر السلبية (كالخوف والغضب والاشمئزاز) تشير إلى أحداث لا ينبغي علينا تجاهلها."
#بوصلة_المتعة
على الارض الواحدة، البيئة الواحدة، وكل التأثيرات الخارجية واحدة، الا ان النبتة نفسها تنبت بصفات مختلفة بينها، وهذا لسبب وجيه جدا (وهو اثر للتكاثر الجنسي) اذ التنوع يتيح المجال للتنافس والتكامل، ويتيح المجال لبقاء صفات كانت اكثر انسجاما مع التغييرات...
هذا هو حال ادمغتنا.. مختلفة بكل ما تحمله الكلمة من معنى للاختلاف...
الكتاب بيستعرض الدراسات العصبية اللي بحثت في موضوع المتعة، الفروق بين الادمغة للتجاوب مع اي معطى سواء كان حاجة طبيعية مثل الاكل والجنس او شيء اخر مثل المخدرات والمهلوسات(واللي تحدث برضو عن حيوانات اخرى تستمع بتناول بعض النباتات اللي تسبب هلوسة حتى يصل بها الامر لاعادة تناول بولها اللي يحتوى ع المادة المهلوسة)...
تحدث عن خصوصية الادمغة القابلة للادمان، والاخري غير القابلة، رغم تعرضهم لنفس الظروف.
فبعض الناس اذا جربو مادة لها تأثير مخدر او مهلوس قد يتقزز من التجربة ويهرب منها، بينما اخر يدمن ويعشق التجربة، واخر قد يتناولها للتسلية.. والادمغة القابلة للادمان نفسها تدمن المخدرات والكحول والمقامرة وحتى الاكل والرياضة والعمل والالعاب واي شيء قابل لتفعيل دوائر المتعة في الدماغ، طبعا مع مساعدة من البيئة، مثل التوتر المزمن والتجارب الصعبة...
سلط الكاتب الضوء على نقاط مهمة بخصوص التعاطي مع هذه النتائج، بكونها تصنف المدمن مثلا ع انه مريض بحاجة لمساعدة للعلاج، لكن دون نزع المسؤولية عنه، بحيث ان المريض لازم يتناول الدواء والا فهو يجني على نفسه والمجتمع مش مسؤول عن النتيجة الي هيوصلها...

[Charlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't sure if this was going to hit or miss. When reading Linden's Accidental Mind, my brain was in a perpetual state of bliss reading about itself. Braingasms one after another. But, then I read his book Touch and didn't like it very much. I bought this with the hope that it would be more like Accidental Mind and less like Touch. It did not disappoint. This book brings forth the best Linden has to offer. All of his wit, humor, and knowledge is imparted to the reader in much the same way it was in Accidental brain.

The best chapter, which is true of most neuroscience books, is the chapter on love. Some authors leave out voles. If I had to guess why, I would say they think it's too overdone. But can you really talk too much about vole love and vole sex? I think not. Monogamy is a subject people love to read about. I sure did when I was in school. My favorite lessons were the ones that destroyed the preconceptions I held.

Far from being driven by virtue, in the animal world, monogamy usually requires mate guarding. One of the best examples of this involves the cute little monogamous birds (not discussed in this book). At first glance, it seems as if the bird couples are just head over heels about each other, never to be parted. When you test this seeming loyalty, a different story appears. "Monogamous" birds are always looking for a little side action, and according to genetic studies, they are getting a lot of it! When the genes of the bird couple's offspring were tested, it played out like an episode of Jerry Springer or Montel Williams. Addressing the father of the bird pair, "You are not in fact the father of this tiny bird! Your wife has some explaining to do." Only it's more messy. The percent of cheating birds was so high (I can't remember off the top of my head but I think around 50%), it was clear both males and females were having sex with extra partner pairs as often as possible. It really destroyed the sweet image this monogamous species had made for itself. When these birds were closely observed, it turned out that loyalty did not drive the monogamous pair bond between the bird couples. Males were receptive to the presence of females but their female counterparts were not having it! They drove away the flirty female who had come to close to the male. Lest you think it's merely female birds who threaten to beat up any other female who makes a move on their man, the males behave in the same manner. The very females who scared away other females were more than happy to entertain other male birds, but their male mates drove off any would-be suitors.

There is no need for this type of mate guarding when it comes to the monogamous prairie vole, a species that will restore your faith in monogamy and love and a species who is discussed in wonderful detail in this book. Ever wonder why some people make you feel love that boarders on madness and obsession while others feel nice, if not a little boring? It has everything to do with your D1 and D2 (dopamine variant) receptors. Prairie voles can teach us a lot about these receptors. It was hard not to fall in love with Linden's discussion of love. But, be warned, his chapter on love will only serve to pique your interest. If you find yourself wanting more info on the neuroscience of love -- D1 and D2 receptors, the nucleus accumbens (0ne of my very favorite parts of the brain), oxytocin and vasopressin, dopamine, and other reward pathways -- you can check out Sapolsky's Behave (one of THE best books of 2017), Sapolsky's Stanford Lectures (available on YouTube), or the many articles on wonderful prairie voles. But if you are the type of person who is invested in the concept of monogamy, you might want to stay away from the cheating prairie vole studies. They are not covered in this book, but researchers have given prairie voles the same treatment they gave birds. They took a pair-bonded monogamous prairie vole couple and tied one of them up. Even among these loving species, in fact one of the most monogamous animals known, they engage in extra pair copulations when they can get away from their mate. Cheating, it seems, is just a reality.

Also very interesting was Lindens discussion on emotional and sexual pleasure as well as physical and emotional pain. It turns out that contrary to what you might think, orgasms, which seem like they are a unified feeling, are actually mediated by multiple brain circuits-- namely a compilation of physical pleasure circuits, and surprisingly non pleasure circuits, as well as emotional circuits. Dampening or increasing any of these will change the experience of the orgasm. For example, epileptic seizures as well as brain stimulation can result in orgasms that are devoid of pleasure or emotional feeling.

When it comes to love and connecting, brain chemistry is everything. Without the right chemistry and activation it is harder to connect with a significant other. When one partner in a marriage is lacking in the type of receptor or brain chemistry needed to connect well with other human beings, the results are often suboptimal. Studies showed that when men in a married couple have the variant of vasopressin receptor that doesn't allow him to connect as much, the couple report higher incidence of divorce, depression in the wife, and marital crisis.

After the chapter on love, which has a lot to do with the reward centers of the brain, Linden segued into how the reward centers are affected by gambling. I usually do not like discussions of genes and addiction, only because we don't know enough to actually have a meaningful discussion. But, I loved Lindens treatment of neuroscience and gambling and particularly liked the anecdote about Bill Lee, as he recounted Lee's memoir Born to Lose.

Another stellar chapter was about the neuroscience of eating. Linden ate more than ​1.2 million calories in 2008. No matter whether he ate like a gluttonous pig or dieted and tortured himself on the treadmill at night, he stayed within the same five pounds long term. Why are bodies so evil like that?​ Learn all about the thalamus (sounds boring but he makes it interesting) and why that damned little thing tries to keep you the same weight over the longterm, no matter what you do in the short term. This chapter should, without question, be required reading for fat shamers.

Linden also delivered a great chapter on drug addiction. Extremely informative and enjoyable. I highly recommend this book.

[Rebecca Blanks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Made me regret not becoming a neuroscientist

[Dan'S_mind]

supplementary article http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-j...

[Loy Machedo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loy Machedo’s Book Review: The Compass of Pleasure by David J. Linden

Ever since I read books on the Human Mind & Human Behavior notably by authors like Jonah Lehrer, Malcom Galdwell, Dan Aierly, Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner and Sam Harris, I have become deeply fascinated with the world of Neuroscience, Cognitive Science and Psychology.

In a Nutshell, what this book is about?
A Scientific explanation to why we are addicted to the following:
1. Sex
2. Unhealthy & Rich Food
3. Exercise
4. Drugs
5. Gambling
6. Meditation
7. God
8. And anything else!

The Compass of Pleasure however hovers around the style of Roy Baumeister (Will Power), Jonah Lehrer (How We Decide) and David Kessler (The End of Overeating) but with one major difference. And if you are curious to know the difference – read the paragraph I have taken from the book:

"These included other dopamine receptor types, the dopamine transporter that mediates reuptake into the synaptic terminal of dopamine that has been released into the synaptic cleft (Figure 1.4), and the enzyme COMT (catechol-O-methlytranferase), which breaks down dopamine and some other related neurotransmitters. Genes encoding proteins that are one step removed from the direction action of dopamine can also be significant. For example, activation of dopamine receptors results in the chemical modification of a protein called DARPP-32, and variation of DARPP--32 gene is predictive of exploratory behavior, a correlate of addiction".

If you found this paragraph tough – then imagine reading a whole book filled with information like this. That takes some stamina and patience to read.

So, the books is very detailed and very well-explained. However, this is not a book for the light hearted or for those who are looking for a breezy simple lovable book. One has to spend some time reading and re-reading the information stated here. Or else, it would result in total confusion.

What did I like about the book?
The book is more like a technical manual. It has so much of information and research being dumb-down to the level of a lay person’s understanding, that one must appreciate and applaud the author for taking so much pain in giving us so much goodness.

What I didn’t like about the book?
The book does not give you any firm conclusion – of any sort. It just leaves you with the information and with even more questions than when you first walked in – which obviously you and I cannot answer. To put it in simple words – it does not serve as a map that shows you the direction from where you are to where you want to go but rather talks to you about what landmarks you can find in this map.

Moment of Truth
A highly informative yet complex book with a fantastic insight into the human mind and its addictions. However, falls short into reaching conclusions of any sort and guiding the reader to a definitive close. It is more like a very interesting science school text book for adults curious to know the human mind.

This is not a book meant for light reading. Purchase it only if you have a desire to learn more about the different parts & aspects of the functioning of the human mind. Which includes quite a number of new terminologies.

Overall Rating
7 out of 10.


Loy Machedo
loymachedo.com | loymachedo.tv

[Ricardo Sanchez · Rating 5 out of 5]

El placer se vuelve la brújula que nos guía en nuestras acciones y conductas.
El vicio y el virtuosísimo de algunas conductas tienen la recompensa de tener una sensación placentera.
¿Será que seamos adictos a determinadas drogas por falta de fuerza de voluntad?
¿Existe gente con una mayor predisposición a volverse adicto?
¿Y existe adicción hacia ciertos alimentos?
¿Somos adictos a ciertos lazos afectivos?
¿El sexo y el juego pueden ser conductas adictivas?
Pues este libro no trata de resolver esas preguntas de manera directa. El autor nos proporciona evidencia científica y relaciona a las drogas, juego, alimentación, sexo, entre otras que se podría tildar de virtuosas, con el placer que nos proporcionan. Un viaje a la neurobiología, al intercambio neuronal y los neurotransmisores: una visión integral biológica y hasta psicosocial del placer.
Vivimos en un mundo donde el placer se encuentra de manera omnipresente y con ello se ven afectados nuestros hábitos desde la alimentación hasta las drogas recreativas.
Todos estos temas se ven con un punto que tienen en común: el placer.
¿Pero que sucede cuando para llegar a ese placer necesitamos más? Esta pregunta puede darse en caso de los múltiples capítulos, ya sea donde se ve al alimentación como en el del juego o en el de drogas recreativas.
Este libro abre el panorama a la visión de la formación de vicios y el futuro de su manejo.
No siendo tan sencillo para el público común, pero si gustas de la biología, la psicología, nutrición y en sí de la ciencia seguro te encantará.

[cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

2011 Book 127/100

This book that examines the ways that our brains experience and register pleasure had some fascinating information such as explanations of nasal intercourse of bottlenose dolphins in the Amazon, a discussion of Siberian reindeer that seek out the hallucinogenic urine from other deer that have ingested the mushroom Amanita Muscaria, and the physical reasons that Parkinson's Disease sufferers may be less likely to gamble, but there is a LOT of science to wade through in the pursuit of these bon mots. I will say that the author did a masterful job of making me care enough about the topic to actually examine the (confusing) scientific figures that explain our brains and their processes within the book -- and that is saying something. You can view the figure here if you'd like an explanation of how heroin and related drugs produce indirect activation of the pleasure circuit -- just as one example. :)

http://books.google.com/books?id=42GY...

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Linden talks about addiction from a purely scientific perspective, without the typical society prejudice. Honestly, I didn't know there was so much information researched thoroughly on it out there. And wow, there is so much we don't know. But truly, addiction seems to really be a hardwired, genetic brain issue for the most part. There is a lot of interesting insight in this book.

So should I still wait until I am 80 like I have always said to do drugs? Here is my answer. Marijuana is just as addictive as alcohol, which isn't very high. I already knew that. But that will make me eat and I am too old to get fat with my crappy metabolism.

But!!! LSD has no addictive qualities at all. Ah, whatever if I trip another time or two? Just saying that if offered, I might not pass it up until I am a senior.

And friends, I learned when I am a senior and do cocaine, it's probably all over. I'll be addicted. It, of course, depends, on how I take it. Just go for the crack when I am 80. Who am I kidding? Maybe they will have much better stuff then!

[Eve · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author, David Linden, writes in the acknowledgements that "conveying scientific information in a clear and engaging manner is a difficult business," and as a nonscientific layperson, I believe that he failed in this endeavor. I'm no dummy; I have a masters in a social science discipline from an ivy league institution, but the neuroscience in this was way beyond me. There were some very interesting data sprinkled throughout, but on the whole I found the book to be a mind-numbing quagmire. Too much detail! I wish that I could have enjoyed it more. I heard the author interviewed on NPR and the topic sounded fascinating but the pleasures were just too few for the amount of work required to obtain them.

[AerinLuvs · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED IT!

I studied some Neuroscience in college and loved this book. It was not over my head, but I probably need to take a look at my Kandle Neuroscience to refresh my memory about certain brain foci.

It was like a blend of pop psychology and neuroscience, and I LOVED IT!! I listened to this in audio format and would like to get it in hardback or paperback as a reference.

It is highly entertaining; who doesn't like hearing about sex experiments and where your brain is being stimulated with addictive behaviors? The latest research is presented in layman's terms (I think) and presents food for thought!

I want to listen to this book again (I got it from the library) and also get a paper copy to keep! Thank you Dr. Linden!

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dense, yet interesting scientific explanation of what pleasure is, why we experience it, how it rewires our brains, addiction, and what ties together the diversity of experiences we perceive as pleasurable (from food, to generosity, to sex, to drugs, to exercise, etc.)

At times dense and complicated (especially for this layman), ultimately it's a profound continued exploration of how we define pleasure, what it means for us to be creatures who experience pleasure, and how we can use that as a tool or abuse it in many ways.

[dejah_thoris · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise makes it sound more interesting and accessible than it actually is. I know neuroscience is hard to make understandable to the layperson, but the description of the book minimizes the amount of biological chemistry Linden discusses by playing up the pleasurable topics more. Definitely a good book for an academic psychology collection (learned tons about my mother in the gambling addiction chapter) but probably a struggle to read for most people outside of class.

[Catherine Woodman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that is on the NPR summer reading list, and I think it is a terrific introduction to neuroscience for the non-scientist (and speaking as a psychiatrist, for the scientist as well). Linden takes complex ideas and conflicting research dara and makes sense of the bad habits we humans seem to gravitate towards. It is readable, understandable and enjoyable--a rare combination.

[R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This a wonderful dip into neurchemical transmitters, general neurology, and behavior.

It may sound like esoteric science, but Linden is able to manage making even 12 syllable transmitters, proteins and the like - immediately understandable and enjoyable.

In short, this is what I'd always hoped to have as a text book, or as a long chat with a witty and smart friend.

[Lene · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed with this book. There was a lot of time spent on basic neuropsychology, which was necessary & presented well, but most of which I already knew. I was looking for something more.

[Paige · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fun and accessible tome on neuroscience.