Contents of Article
The SEEKING system is the grand architect of our emotional lives, propelling us toward everything we desire, including knowledge.
Jaak Panksepp
Why Your Brain Loves Curiosity.
Curiosity is not a luxury. It is not something reserved for the intellectually inclined or the inquisitive few. It is a deeply embodied capacity that lives in all of us – an emotional motivational force that seeks connection, collaboration, and completion for contextual coherence.
When we are curious, something awakens inside of us. A forward-orientating, moving energy arises.
A felt-sense of how? why? what if? that brings us into movement. An innate drive toward Self, toward Other, toward the World of the unknown. This drive is not random. It is embedded and embodied: a mammalian motivation carefully choreographed through neurobiological dance that organises how we sense, relate, and make meaning in the world.
So let us now speak to that neurobiological organisational dance in a curious exploration of the neurochemicals that spark exploration and engagement – specifically mapped through the role each chemical plays, how we feel it (sensation), how it shapes our relating (perception), and how we make sense of it (interpretation).
Dopamine – The Spark of Exploration
- Role: Dopamine is the primary engine of curiosity’s motivational drive. It fuels our SEEKING system (Panksepp, 1998)—organising the anticipatory pursuit of novelty, coherence, and reward.
- Sensation (motivational): A subtle or urgent “itch to know”—a bodily urge to move forward, discover, or complete a pattern.
- Perception (relational): The world feels open, inviting, filled with possibilities. Curiosity shapes the world as reachable.
- Interpretation (conceptual): “If I keep exploring, I’ll find something that matters.” It links learning with reward and meaning.
Noradrenaline – The Call to Attention
- Role: Noradrenaline activates when there’s something new or unexpected in the environment. It heightens alertness and flags relevance.
- Sensation (motivational): A quickened spark—readying the body to orient, listen, or respond.
- Perception (relational): Novel cues feel alive and important. Attention sharpens, momentarily heightening awareness.
- Interpretation (conceptual): “This is different—pay attention, it might matter.” It anchors curiosity to adaptive alertness.
Acetylcholine – The Lens of Focus
- Role: Acetylcholine enhances sensory tuning and deepens engagement. It helps us focus on fine-grained details and supports attentional learning.
- Sensation (motivational): A draw to look closer—refining rather than rushing.
- Perception (relational): The environment reveals richness and texture. Small things feel significant.
- Interpretation (conceptual): “There’s more here if I focus. This deserves care and attention.”
Endogenous Opioids – The Pleasure of Understanding
- Role: These natural chemicals reward insight. While dopamine drives the “wanting,” opioids bring the “liking” once a curiosity is satisfied.
- Sensation (motivational): A warm, settled feeling—satisfaction, relief, or joy after discovery.
- Perception (relational): The source of knowing (a person, process, or Self) becomes associated with safety and reward.
- Interpretation (conceptual): “This makes sense now. I’ve found what I was looking for.” It binds curiosity with resolution and rest.
Serotonin – The Rhythm of Patience
- Role: Serotonin slows us down. It inhibits impulsive behaviours and supports reflective, sustained curiosity.
- Sensation (motivational): A felt steadiness—curiosity as contemplative rather than urgent.
- Perception (relational): The world feels stable enough to explore gently, with measured care.
- Interpretation (conceptual): “This is worth returning to. I don’t need to rush it.”
Oxytocin – The Social Field of Wonder
- Role: Curiosity is often social. Oxytocin supports co-regulated learning, joint attention, and trust-based exploration.
- Sensation (motivational): A pull toward shared discovery—a bodily sense of “we” in the unknown.
- Perception (relational): Others feel safe and engaging—there’s a sense of curiosity being held with or by another.
- Interpretation (conceptual): “We can find this together. It’s safe to wonder in connection.”
Cortisol – The Curiosity-Killer or Catalyst
- Role: Cortisol, the body’s stress hormone, is a double-edged sword. Mild increases can spark alertness and fuel curiosity; too much shuts it down.
- Sensation (motivational): At optimal levels, a bright tension; at high levels, a felt freeze or urgency to escape.
- Perception (relational): The world may feel intriguing—or dangerous. Safety is key.
- Interpretation (conceptual): “This might be exciting…” or “This is too much—I can’t take it in.”
What This Means for Your Known Sense of Self
Curiosity is a state of mind and body that supports seeking: exploration and engagement, multifaceted domains of discovering, connecting, and integrating. Curiosity helps us bridge past and present, inner and outer, Self and Other.
But curiosity can also be fragile. It does not thrive in chaos, confusion, shame, or doubt. It needs safety and protection, co-regulated connection, compassion, and space to move.
In therapeutic work, when we are curious together – about parts of you, about sensations that don’t yet have words, about longings that feel too tender to name – we are coming together co-activating our brain’s natural rhythms of healing through discovery.
To be curious is to seek and to find.
To be curious is to be alive in joy and peace.
To be curious in connection is to be seen, known, understood, valued, accepted, delighted in and thus to be innately found.
Welcome, my name is Chele, I am a therapist primarily specialising in Trauma – specifically as it presents as Burnout and Breakdown. As a psychotherapist & PACFA & CCAA Clinical Counsellor I work individually with beautiful humans such as yourself who feel alone, lost, confused, & overwhelmed; those of you who are longing for something different.
As such, I offer my knowledge, skills, and inherent gifts with ears that listen to hear, and a heart open to receive who you are, no matter the suffering you bring; to support you in an exploration of how your past has impacted you and the ways that shows up presently. Together we will rediscover your hope and your sense of Self; we will reconnect you to what matters reclaiming the joy and delight in life you so deserve.
I welcome you to view my services or connect with me to explore how I can assist you in your journey.
References
The main structure and neurobiological research for this article was created by ChatGPT – Human ideas, rhythm and resonance created and enhanced by Chele Yntema.
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