Will work for dopamine: why effort motivates us

We talk with psychiatrist Neir Eshel about why rewards are sweeter when we've had to work for them and what this teaches us about our brains' reward systems

Apr 16 2026

Nicholas Weiler

From Our Neurons to Yours Wu Tsai Neuro Podcast

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.

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Neir Eshel, MD, PhD — Neir Eshel is an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford Medicine and a Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute faculty affiliate.

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)

Episode credits

This episode was produced by Michael Osborne at 14th Street Studios, with sound design by Mark Bell . Social media strategy is by Julia Diaz, and additional editing by Nathan Collins. Our logo is by Aimee Garza. The show is hosted by Nicholas Weiler at Stanford's Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute and supported in part by the Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience.

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