VALO'S ARCHIVE

The brain chemical affects your chances of making a snap decision or movement Altering the dopamine level in the brain could change what choices we make Scientists studied mice to understand how dopamine affects decision making The discovery could be used to develop better treatments for people with OCD Imagine approaching a food buffet, you have your eye on a pizza but at the last second you spot the steak and quickly shift one onto your plate. Your ability to make a split-second decision could be powered by dopamine, researchers have discovered. Scientists studying the behaviour of mice found that the brain chemical significantly affects your chances of making a snap movement or decision. Scientists studying mice found that dopamine significantly affects your chances of making a snap decision. This image shows cells in a mouse brain. Blue indicates the nucleus of individual cells, green indicates dopamine neurons Their discovery could help people who have problems contro...

Opioids attach to receptors in the brain. Normally these opioids are the endogenous variety that are created naturally in the body. Once attached, they send signals to the brain of the "opioid effect" which blocks pain, slows breathing, and has a general calming and anti-depressing effect. The body cannot produce enough natural opioids to stop severe or chronic pain nor can it produce enough to cause an overdose. opioids can activate receptors because their chemical structure mimics that of a natural neurotransmitter. This similarity in structure "fools" receptors and allows the drugs to lock onto and activate the nerve cells. Although these drugs mimic brain chemicals, they don't activate nerve cells in the same way as a natural neurotransmitter, and they lead to abnormal messages being transmitted through the network. Opioids target the brain's reward system by flooding the circuit with dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter present in regions o...

The mechanism by which the conscious feeling of euphoria is felt is still unknown. Due to the multiple methods by which euphoria can occur it is likely a 'natural' state of the brain that can be triggered either naturally or unnaturally. It is also likely that it occurs in the same brain regions responsible for mood. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reward_system You'll note that many of the structures connected to the reward system are glutamatergic interneurons. This means that excess glutamate can trigger the reward system to produce euphoric feelings. In cerebral hypoxia the lack of oxygen results in a lack of energy for the cell. Mainly this results in the switching off of the sodium / potassium pump. A nerve cell fires by moving sodium outside the cell and potassium inside the cell to create concentration gradients, that are then reversed during an action potential. If the pump does not have oxygen then this mechanism stops. This results in an increase in e...