What Masud Husain has said about Dopamine
3 quotes · 1 episode · Aug 24, 2026
Masud Husain, Professor of Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Oxford, expert on motivation and apathy, author of Our Brains, Our Selves, has been quoted on Dopamine 3 times in 1 episode of Huberman Lab, most recently on August 24, 2026. Each quote below is verbatim and links to the moment it was said.
In their words
Husain says evidence that doom scrolling produces dopamine hits is not strong.
“I think the evidence that there are dopamine hits when you're doing this isn't really very strong”
Huberman Lab: How to Improve Motivation & Overcome Procrastination | Dr. Masud Husain (Aug 24, 2026) · Listen from 1:15:03
Husain explains that dopamine modulates wanting, while liking or hedonic pleasure appears linked to opioid neurotransmitters.
“wanting, pursuit of a goal is mediated or modulated at least by dopamine, whereas actually the liking, the pleasure you might get from an outcome is not”
Huberman Lab: How to Improve Motivation & Overcome Procrastination | Dr. Masud Husain (Aug 24, 2026) · Listen from 1:16:30
Husain warns high-performing students that stimulants may worsen rather than improve their performance due to the inverse U-shaped dopamine curve.
“So just think twice about taking some stimulant that you want to get a better grade, because actually the evidence would be that you might get worse from doing it”
Huberman Lab: How to Improve Motivation & Overcome Procrastination | Dr. Masud Husain (Aug 24, 2026) · Listen from 1:47:30
Episodes
How to Improve Motivation & Overcome Procrastination | Dr. Masud HusainHuberman Lab · Aug 24, 2026 · 2 h 21 min
Andrew Huberman and Oxford neurologist Masud Husain discuss the neuroscience of motivation, apathy, dopamine, effort-reward decisions, attention, ADHD, and Alzheimer's resilience.
Masud Husain on other topics
- Alzheimer's disease · 3 quotes
- Motivation · 2 quotes
- Effort-reward decision making · 2 quotes
- Apathy · 2 quotes
- Attention · 1 quote
- Multiple sclerosis · 1 quote
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder · 1 quote
- Parkinson's disease · 1 quote