The Neurobiology of Desire: Dopamine and the Regulation of Mood and Motivational States in Humans

Abstract In most contemporary theories of emotion, the processes of desire, happiness, and pleasure are separable yet affect each other (Lazarus, 1991; Rolls, 2005) (see also Bindra, 1969, 1978; LeDoux, 1989, 2000; Toates, 1986). Desire reflects the focused interest in a goal object and the drive to obtain it. Happiness is an affective state linked to the appraisal that progress is being made. Pleasure, in comparison, is a positive response to obtaining the goal.