Starting college brings a lot of new things to one’s life; new friends, new surroundings, a sense of independence, and of course, new classes, which are accompanied by loads of work to complete for each of them. Thinking about all the work that a college student must complete for his or her classes made me wonder: why do I sometimes feel ferociously motivated to burn through through boatloads of homework, and other times feel like doing nothing but laying in bed and watching Netflix?

The study of motivation is largely a concern of the field of psychology, as it involves biological processes in the brain which cause humans to think and act the way they do. However, a new biological mechanism for motivation was only recently proposed. Previously, the neurotransmitter dopamine had been thought to be related to pleasure in the brain. However, research by John Salamone of the University of Connecticut proposes that dopamine may actually be related to human motivation instead. In his studies, Salamone would artificially manipulate levels of dopamine in animals’ brains, then provide them with a choice between two different rewards of two different values, which could be obtained by different levels of effort. Most often, the animals with lower levels of dopamine would opt for the lower-value, easier-to-obtain reward, while animals with higher levels of dopamine would choose to exert the extra effort in order to obtain the higher-value reward. The findings in Salamone’s research are corroborated by further research conducted by scientists at the Universitat Jaume I of Castellón, which also found dopamine to be linked to motivation. Unfortunately, because these studies were conducted on animals, the discoveries made cannot be applied to humans, although they do provide some interesting insights into the science behind motivation.

However, a study conducted by Vanderbilt scientists explored the link between dopamine levels and motivation in humans. The study involved 25 volunteers (52% of whom were female), aged 18-29, who were asked to perform a button-pushing task in order to gauge their effort in achieving a monetary reward. They first selected either an easy or a hard task, where easy tasks earned $1 and hard tasks earned a maximum of $4. After selecting, they were then told what level of probability (high, medium, or low) they had of receiving a reward. Tasks lasted for 30 seconds each and the participants completed tasks consecutively for 20 minutes. Using positron emission tomography (PET scans), researchers found that participants willing to exert more effort in order to obtain rewards had higher levels of dopamine in the striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex of the brain, whereas those less motivated to obtain the reward had higher levels of dopamine in the anterior insula of the brain. These findings surprised researchers because they meant that dopamine can have opposing effects on human motivation depending on where in the brain it is released.

So, what can we do to keep ourselves motivated? Since there is little that one can do in the way of biologically manipulating their own levels of dopamine (without taking drugs, of course), how can one maintain their drive to achieve? According to an article by the Scientific American, three crucial factors behind motivation are autonomy, value, and competence. To summarize, people will find themselves motivated when they feel in control, when they are engaged in what they are doing, and when they feel good about the work they are doing.

All in all, while dopamine can be responsible for your level of motivation on a biological level, you can not chalk up all of your laziness to biology. Motivation also involves getting yourself in the right mindset to accomplish tasks. So, next time you find yourself in bed watching Netflix when you should be studying, remind yourself of your long-term goals, create short-term goals, and exert passion into whatever you do.