Question

Jake had a great time snowboarding with his friends. Which of these is a likely result of his activity?

An increased level of dopamine that doesn't reduce brain signals
A decreased level of pleasure responses that doesn't reduce brain receptors
An increased level of addiction that is created by dopamine production
A decreased level of mental cognition, prompting a desire to repeat the experience

Answer 1

I wouldn't think that you would get addicted to snowboarding on an unhealthy level. I say C.

Answer 2

First of all, an addiction is a dysfunction in an individual's neural reward circuitry whereby this individual grows unable to control his cravings much less recognize his problematic behavior with his interpersonal relationships. For example, a crack addict sacrifices time that could've been spent with friends and family just so she could snort illegal (and not to mention, expensive) rocks. Another scenario is when a video game addict regularly shuts himself away from his interpersonal relationships just so he could grind up a few levels. Both of these cases involve people who gave up social relationships for the sake of amping up their dopamine to unhealthy high levels ('unhealthy' refers to the negative effects on other aspects in the lives of the people aforementioned).

However, in our case, Jake experienced pleasure (i.e. raised dopamine levels) from a SINGLE snowboarding session. In addition, there were no indications of problematic behavior nor were there any signs of dependency. And we could also note that the prompt gave "...had a great time...with his friends." all of which suggests that positive levels of socialization took place during the snowboarding activity. Contrarily, an addict would snowboard for the dopamine rush at the expense of his relationships -- this simply was not the case for Jake.

Therefore, the best answer would have to be A) An increased level of dopamine that doesn't reduce brain signals.

FURTHER NOTES:
B is incorrect because there was no sign of reduction in pleasure -- in fact, it's the opposite. C is also incorrect because decreased mental cognition correlates with poor socializing ability. If Jake had a great time WITH his friends, this would suggest that the entire snowboarding group conducted decent levels of socialization.


Reference

ASAM Board of Directors. Public Policy Statement: Definition of Addiction (2011). American Society of Addiction Medicine