THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE HEADLINES
T he internet is currently awash with articles, videos and podcasts promising to help you “reset your brain’s reward system” and “rediscover the joy in life’s simple pleasures.” Lowering your current level of stimulation, they claim, will help you not only regain your ability to focus, but also become more productive.
The practice has come to be known as dopamine detoxing and, according to its advocates, the reason so many of us are so easily distracted and apathetic is because of the over-availability of short-term rewards. Temptations such as social media, video games, junk food, online shopping, coffee and alcohol have burnt out our brains’ dopamine-based reward systems.