Today’s episode is about the neuroscience of hard work—or maybe more specifically, the value we place on hard work.

There’s something different about hiking to the top of a mountain versus taking a helicopter. The view from the top is exactly the same, but if you’ve done the hard slog to get there, the payoff is going to be much more rewarding. 

The question is, how does the brain know the difference? To answer this, we need to take a deep dive into the brain’s reward system, and one of our favorite neurotransmitters, dopamine. And it turns out, the way dopamine operates is more complicated than we thought.

Our guest today, Stanford Medicine psychiatrist Neir Eshel, tells us about new research that’s starting to reveal exactly how the brain pushes us to work hard for the things that matter to us. 

Learn More

• Eshel's Stanford Translational Addiction and Aggression Research (STAAR) Lab
• Why we value things more when they cost us more (Stanford Medicine, 2026)
• Cholinergic modulation of dopamine release drives effortful behaviour (Nature, 2026)
• Striatal dopamine integrates cost, benefit, and motivation (Neuron, 2023)
• Dopamine and serotonin work in opposition to shape learning (Wu Tsai Neuro, 2024)
• Why we do what we do (From Our Neurons to Yours, 2024)

Send us a text!

Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying our show, please take a moment to give us a review on your podcast app of choice and share this episode with your friends. That's how we grow as a show and bring the stories of the frontiers of neuroscience to a wider audience.

We want to hear from your neurons! Email us at at neuronspodcast@stanford.edu

Learn more about the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.