The Spark (Dopamine)

Lyrics

[Intro]

Arvid, in your Gothenburg lab, winter of 1957,
that spectrophotometer humming under fluorescent lights.

[Verse 1]
You turn the dial, worn brass under your thumb,
measuring the catecholamines in rabbit brain slices.
January 25th, your birthday just passed, 34 years old,
and the readings spike – dopamine, not just a byproduct.
It's the signal, the spark that pulls us toward the light.

[Chorus]
Oh, dopamine, my fleeting lover,
you flood the nucleus accumbens,
a rush in the ventral tegmental area.
Motivation's quiet fire, reward's electric kiss,
you make me chase the horizon, again and again.

[Verse 2]
Susan whispers in her book, 1997,
dopamine drives the seek, but chains the crave.
In that cluttered room, vials of L-DOPA on the shelf,
handwritten labels, dates smudged from sweaty palms.
You ingested it once, risky taste on your tongue,
mood lifting like fog from the fjord.

[Chorus]
Oh, dopamine, my fleeting lover,
you flood the nucleus accumbens,
a rush in the ventral tegmental area.
Motivation's quiet fire, reward's electric kiss,
you make me chase the horizon, again and again.

[Bridge]

Arvid, did you feel it then, the learning loop closing?
Not just pleasure, but the pull to adapt, to resilient paths.
In the chill of 16 degrees, wool sweater scratching your arms,
black coffee steaming in a chipped mug,
formaldehyde's tang biting the air.

[Verse 3]
Microelectrode wires tangled on the bench,
recording the hum of neurons firing.
Ten PM, lab fridge buzzing like a distant heartbeat,
and you see it – the neurotransmitter's role,
in Parkinson's tremble, in motivation's dance.

[Outro]

Dopamine, spark in the synapse,
keep me seeking, keep me whole.
Arvid's legacy, in every reward I claim.