Question: Everybody is obsessed with narwhals, and that got me thinking - what part of your brain makes you obsessed with something, and how can you stop an obsession (This would also be helpful for my obsession with Harry Potter and Percy Jackson).
obsession, fixation and addiction are probably related to imbalances in neurotransmitters or other chemicals in the brain.
But there is nothing wrong with finding things that other people don’t seem to care about, really, really interesting 🙂
In OCD it’s the orbital cortex, (lies just above the eye sockets); and three others–the caudate nucleus, the cingulate gyrus, and the thalamus–(They’re deep inside the brain.)
But yeah, there is a difference between obsession, OCD, addicition and just extreme interest. In addiction serotonin and dopamine are the most important neurotransmitters.
But the type of obsession you’re referring to is interesting in another way. Sharing and imitating each other, talking about the same thing is very important socially, and your brain rewards you for it with high serotonin levels (which feels good). The same goes for a lot of people making the same movements or repeating the same phrase together. that kind of behavior shows up in your brainactivity and neurotransmitter levels 🙂
obsession, fixation and addiction are probably related to imbalances in neurotransmitters or other chemicals in the brain.
But there is nothing wrong with finding things that other people don’t seem to care about, really, really interesting 🙂
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In OCD it’s the orbital cortex, (lies just above the eye sockets); and three others–the caudate nucleus, the cingulate gyrus, and the thalamus–(They’re deep inside the brain.)
But yeah, there is a difference between obsession, OCD, addicition and just extreme interest. In addiction serotonin and dopamine are the most important neurotransmitters.
But the type of obsession you’re referring to is interesting in another way. Sharing and imitating each other, talking about the same thing is very important socially, and your brain rewards you for it with high serotonin levels (which feels good). The same goes for a lot of people making the same movements or repeating the same phrase together. that kind of behavior shows up in your brainactivity and neurotransmitter levels 🙂
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