Rejuvenation: Robbie Robertson and dopamine
Saturday, February 5, 2011 at 09:47PM 
Robbie Robertson with The Band, 1971. Image tSR - Nth Man
Rejuvenation has many faces. It can be a simple walk in park, reading a good book, meditation, yoga. It can result from a focused connection between the inner self and the outer world or between the inner self and the really inner self. Other mental activity fades into the background.
A short burst can occur at any time. Last Saturday, I was driving to City Floral to get a new houseplant while listening to KBCO. A new song came on: Robbie Robertson’s He Don't Live Here No More (Radio Edit) and the rest was chemical. The “feel good” neurotransmitter dopamine was released.
According to at McGill University neuroscientist Valorie Salimpoor:
You're following these tunes and anticipating what's going to come next and whether it's going to confirm or surprise you, and all of these little cognitive nuances are what's giving you this amazing pleasure," said Valorie Salimpoor, a in Montreal. "The reinforcement or reward happens almost entirely because of dopamine."