DOMINATIONforward-looking strategies, it allows us to gain control over the world
around us, and dominate our environment.^1
In addition, the dopamine control circuit is the source of imagina-
tion. It lets us peer into the future to see the consequences of decisions
we might make right now, and thus allows us to choose which future we
prefer. Finally, it gives us the ability to plan how to make that imaginary
future a reality. Like the desire circuit, which only cares about things we
do not have, control dopamine works in the unreal world of the possi-
ble. The two circuits begin in the same place, but the desire circuit ends
in a part of the brain that triggers excitement and enthusiasm, while
the control circuit goes to the frontal lobes, a part of the brain that spe-
cializes in logical thinking.
In this way, both circuits give us the capacity to consider “phan-
toms”—things that don’t physically exist. For desire dopamine, those
phantoms are things we wish to have but don’t have right now—things
we want in the future. For control dopamine, the phantoms are the
building blocks of imagination and creative thought: ideas, plans, theo-
ries, abstract concepts such as mathematics and beauty, and worlds yet
to be.
Control dopamine carries us beyond the primitive I want of desire
dopamine. It gives us tools to comprehend, analyze, and model the
world around us, so we can extrapolate possibilities, compare and con-
trast them, then craft ways to achieve our goals. It is an extended and
complex execution of the evolutionary imperative: to secure as many
resources as possible. In contrast, desire dopamine is the kid in the
back seat shouting for his parents to “Look! Look!” every time he sees
a McDonald’s, a toy store, or a puppy on the sidewalk. Control dopa-
mine is the parent at the wheel, hearing each request and considering
1 We’ll be using the term environment in a different way than it is commonly used.
When most people think of the environment, they think of the natural world, often
as something we need to protect, as in environmentalism. Neuroscientists use the
word to refer to everything in the external world that influences our behavior and
health, as opposed to influences that come from our genes. So the environment
includes not only mountains, trees, and grass, but also things such as people, rela-
tionships, food, and shelter.