Huberman Lab How Dopamine & Serotonin Shape Decisions, Motivation & Learning | Dr. Read Montague
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Feb 2, 2026 
Dr. Read Montague, professor and director at Virginia Tech studying how dopamine and serotonin shape learning and decision-making. He explains dopamine as a learning signal tied to shifting expectations. They explore foraging and dating analogies, tonic versus phasic dopamine, serotonin opponency and SSRIs, trauma and addiction effects, and how AI tools help decode neuromodulator data.
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Dopamine Is A Learning Signal
- Dopamine primarily functions as a learning signal that updates expectations over time rather than simply encoding pleasure.
- Reinforcement learning algorithms (temporal-difference) mirror dopamine fluctuations across successive predictions and drive behavior.
Expectation-To-Expectation Updates Matter
- Dopamine encodes the change between successive expectations, enabling chaining of predictions across time.
- This temporal-difference coding supports complex learning like games and foraging where feedback is sparse.
Dopamine Updates And Motivation Together
- Dopamine fluctuations both teach (update predictions) and set motivation by creating an envelope-like baseline that shapes urgency.
- Unexpected positive surprises give extra dopamine 'hits' that augment learning and drive.
