Neurotransmitter

When this sodium reaches the terminal buttons, calcium enters the cell and causing vesicles to bind to the cell wall and release the content that is present, usually a neurotransmitter. This neurotransmitter will now go to a different neuron, and incite an action potential. This whole process occurs all the time will billions of neurons. It is an exceedingly complex system that is vital for the survival of species. What if the sodium channels…

Chronic depression, also referred to as dysthymia or chronic depression is a mood disorder. Chronic depression is defined any feelings of hopelessness and unhappiness that persists for more than two weeks, and it is different from psychotic depression. With psychotic depression, the illness is accompanied by some form of psychosis, such as delusions, detachment from reality, and hallucinations. In addition to emotional disturbances, chronic depression is also like to sensory disturbances, such…

Biomphalaria glabrata is a freshwater snail that originates from Central and South America. The NMRI strain of Biomphalaria glabrata exhibits albinism. The snails’ albinism makes them transparent, which provides the opportunity to observe their circulatory anatomy and physiology. They lay eggs in masses, with 2-30 eggs per mass. The eggs go through several developmental stages. First, they are fertilized. Each egg contains a single embryo, which then begins to grow. Each embryo measures…

GABA is a major inhibitory neurotransmitter. Having a deficiency in GABA can be a big factor contributing to stress and anxiety. It is a chemical that the brain uses to communicate with each other. It is something that slows down the body’s activities. If you have too much of it, then it will lead to being too relaxed. If you have too little of it, then that may cause eating disorders, you can’t relax, and other symptoms. Not only are these some factors of having too little or too much GABA, but…

hippocampus. The amygdala is located deep in the brain and is associated with one’s emotions. “The amygdala is activated when a person recalls emotionally charged memories” (“What Causes Depression” 2), memories in which spike an increase in neurotransmitters and never settles back down even after the memory is over. The amygdala activity is typically higher when a patient is depressed, and increased activity in the amygdala continues even if one recovers fully from depression. The next affected…

Introduction According to Yamamoto and Vernier (2011), dopamine is without a doubt one of the oldest neurotransmitters acting on the central nervous system. The researchers suggest that the emergence of dopaminergic systems most likely predates the divergence of chordates during evolution, and the neurotransmitter’s common ancestry is suggested by commonalities among different species that express the same enzymes, vesicle transporters, degradation enzymes, and receptors. Since dopamine is a…

whole cell patch-clamping and the application of the common psychoactive drug-caffeine. The significance of quantifying the electrical signaling of the chosen neuron is to proportionally quantify the effects the chosen drug-caffeine has on the neurotransmitter Adenosine. Caffeine is a known antagonist of Adenosine, inquiring that it counters Adenosine’s inhibitory effects by a simple mechanism of competitive inhibition – not allowing Adenosine to bind…

The MAOA gene variant known as the “warrior” gene is actually a variant of the promoter region of the gene, coding for a less active MAOA enzyme. Since this enzyme hangs out inside cells and breaks down neurotransmitters, having less active MAOA means more neurotransmitters (dopamine, norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine) are available, which might be protective against depression (the results are mixed), but it is also possible it could lead to more impulsive and violent behavior. Over the…

Badass U Articles Summary Happiness: An Unusual Finding Scientists have found something very unusual when it comes to happiness. Or rather they found an interesting difference between happy and unhappy people. Before I go into the finding, let us not confuse unhappiness with uncomfortableness or painfulness. You can live a very comfortable, pleasurable life and still not be truly happy. What did they find out? There is an inverse correlation between happiness and daydreaming. In other words,…

Neurotransmitters are the chemical messengers’ comprising of multiple endogenous chemicals allowing neurotransmission across synapses. During the neurotransmission a chemical is released from the axon terminal of a presynaptic neuron fabricating millions of synaptic connections that play a major role in modelling everyday activities. Through the process of staining and stimulations in experiments, researchers have now identified more than 100 unique chemical messenger types which can further be…