When investigating the mechanisms of neural communication and the impact various drugs can have on this its important to take into consideration what these actually mean and whereabouts in the body are the main components. The word neural communication consists of how neurons communicate with each other through their physiological process, and drugs consist of chemicals, substances or medicines that have a physiological and/or psychological effect on the brain and body. Within this essay I will look at what main parts of the body are associated with neural communication and I will explain how they interact as well as function to create the central nervous system, I will distinguish why the central nervous system itself is important and how
…show more content…
Dopamine is the main reward pathway as well as being a hormone it’s the main factor that impacts an individuals feeling of pleasure. However, when taking a drug this can work in place of the chemical neurotransmitter, therefore interfering with the balance of this chemical to make it imbalanced and therefore disrupting behavior of the typical neural communication. An example of this is the use of conventional antipsychotic drugs in the treatment of schizophrenia, these bind to dopamine receptors but don’t actually stimulate them and consequently because of this these are known as antagonists, this therefore has the effect that it reduces stimulation of dopamine particularly in D2 receptors; doing this reduces the amount of dopamine transmitted to the postsynaptic neuron decreasing and by doing this it therefore stops the brain receiving this excess of dopamine delaying the effects which is thought to cause schizophrenia when there is an excess eliminating the symptoms (Wiley & Sons, …show more content…
Instead of effecting dopamine however these effect serotonin receptors, an example of this is LSD’s; these prohibit serotonin from entering into the brain through the bloodstream, the structure of the LSD is too similar from the structure of serotonin for the brain to be able to differentiate between them and this tricks the brain into thinking the LSD is in fact serotonin and is passed across the synapse along with the original serotonin or instead of the actual serotonin increasing the levels of serotonin within the central nervous system. Serotonins prime function as a neurotransmitter and hormone is to regulate mood, therefore when serotonin is higher mood is generally better; therefore, LSD’s as well as this often also has the effect of giving an individual hallucination, therefore an individual can experience things, most commonly i.e. auditory or visual stimuli that’s not actually real, therefore this additional of serotonin causes this effect. We can also look at the effects of alcohol on neural communication. Alcohol effects the CNS in many different aspects by targeting a variety of receptors most commonly it effects N-Methyl-D-aspartate which is also knows as NMDA, this is effected by glutamate being decreased at the receptors when alcohol is induced, this has the effects of memory loss this is due to the lack of glutamate which is important for memory within the hippocampus- therefore
Dopamine is the main reward pathway as well as being a hormone it’s the main factor that impacts an individuals feeling of pleasure. However, when taking a drug this can work in place of the chemical neurotransmitter, therefore interfering with the balance of this chemical to make it imbalanced and therefore disrupting behavior of the typical neural communication. An example of this is the use of conventional antipsychotic drugs in the treatment of schizophrenia, these bind to dopamine receptors but don’t actually stimulate them and consequently because of this these are known as antagonists, this therefore has the effect that it reduces stimulation of dopamine particularly in D2 receptors; doing this reduces the amount of dopamine transmitted to the postsynaptic neuron decreasing and by doing this it therefore stops the brain receiving this excess of dopamine delaying the effects which is thought to cause schizophrenia when there is an excess eliminating the symptoms (Wiley & Sons, …show more content…
Instead of effecting dopamine however these effect serotonin receptors, an example of this is LSD’s; these prohibit serotonin from entering into the brain through the bloodstream, the structure of the LSD is too similar from the structure of serotonin for the brain to be able to differentiate between them and this tricks the brain into thinking the LSD is in fact serotonin and is passed across the synapse along with the original serotonin or instead of the actual serotonin increasing the levels of serotonin within the central nervous system. Serotonins prime function as a neurotransmitter and hormone is to regulate mood, therefore when serotonin is higher mood is generally better; therefore, LSD’s as well as this often also has the effect of giving an individual hallucination, therefore an individual can experience things, most commonly i.e. auditory or visual stimuli that’s not actually real, therefore this additional of serotonin causes this effect. We can also look at the effects of alcohol on neural communication. Alcohol effects the CNS in many different aspects by targeting a variety of receptors most commonly it effects N-Methyl-D-aspartate which is also knows as NMDA, this is effected by glutamate being decreased at the receptors when alcohol is induced, this has the effects of memory loss this is due to the lack of glutamate which is important for memory within the hippocampus- therefore