# Dopamine **Domain:** Neuroscience / Learning **Doc Type:** Concept **Maturity:** Developed **Related:** [[Reward Prediction Error]], [[Wolfram Schultz]], [[Peter Dayan]], [[P. Read Montague]], [[Schedule and Loop]] ## Definition **Dopamine** is a neuromodulator involved in multiple brain functions, including movement, motivation and learning; it should not be reduced to a generic “pleasure chemical.” ## Schedule–Loop Context Phasic dopamine activity has been closely associated with reward prediction error. The important bridge is discrepancy-driven updating, not a claim that one chemical simply encodes pleasure or that biological learning is identical to a software algorithm. ## Backlinks - [[Schedule and Loop]] - [[articles/Schedule and Loop|Schedule and Loop]]