Questions tagged [neurotransmitter]
Small molecules involved in the propagation of a nerve signal across the synapses.
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Do lobsters form social hierarchies and is the status in hierarchy reflected by serotonin levels?
In his book 12 rules for life Jordan Peterson claims that:
Consider serotonin, the chemical that governs posture and escape in the lobster. Low-
ranking lobsters produce comparatively low levels of ...
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Neurons: how does the brain reduce electromagnetic interference?
I read that the frequency of signal over neural ion channels in the brain can range from .19 Hz - 30 Hz at low voltage. For an interference example, AC electricity is 60 Hz at high voltage and ...
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Vision and signal through the nervous system? [closed]
I have questions regarding the signal path between the retina and other parts of the brain. An understanding and then questions in bold follow.
Wikipedia states:
Retinal ganglion cells spontaneously ...
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Impact of increased sodium conductance at a neuromuscular junction
If trans-epithelial Na+ transport were to increase at the synapse(please consider both pre and post-synaptic membrane situations) in a neuromuscular junction, how would that manifest itself? My guess ...
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Is Signal Transduction Unidirectional from the Stimuli to the Final Receptor?
I wonder if signal transduction in biological systems including visual, olfactory, tactile or any other biological system, is unidirectional. Suppose that $X_i$ is the $ith$ cell in the signal ...
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Is there a difference between human neuron cells compared to those of other animals?
Thanks for looking.
Firstly, I am nowhere near biologist, just a student, so my apologies if this isn't a "good" question.
Background:
So I was searching about intelligence, brains and ...
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Where are neurotransmitters secreted?
As far as I know, neurotransmitters are proteins, so they should be secreted from the cell body of the neurons.
However, when I checked online, they say neurotransmitters are secreted in the axon ...
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Using serotonin for relief from allergies
When someone suffers from an allergy, due some allergens they are given drugs like anti-histamine, adrenaline or serotonin. How does serotonin affects the body to give a relieve from the action of ...
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Alternative hypothesis for learning in brain beyond the hebbian rule
I was reading on wikipedia that there are exceptions to the hebbian rule, and I was curious about the possibilities of other hypotheses of how learning occur in the brain. So I would like to know:
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How do anticholinesterase pesticides kill nematodes?
Compounds that inhibit the enzyme acetylcholinesterase are commonly used as pesticides. In animals with centralized respiratory systems controlled by the nervous system, poisoning with an ...
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Are endorphins addictive?
Endorphins are among the brain chemicals known as neurotransmitters, which function to transmit electrical signals within the nervous system. Stress and pain are the two most common factors leading to ...
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Can catecholamines degrade back into tyrosine, or, is synthesis irreversible? (in human body)
Catecholamines like dopamine, noradrenaline and adrenaline are broken down with enzymes that catalyze the reaction. Can they degrade back into tyrosine (a conditionally essential amino acid), or is ...
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Differences between neurotransmitters and neuromodulators
According to the Wikipedia article on neuromodulation
a neuromodulator can be conceptualized as a neurotransmitter that is
not reabsorbed by the pre-synaptic neuron or broken down into a
...
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How does the dopamine spike from drugs compare quantitatively to pleasurable non-drug activities?
I did find this popular press article that quotes a researcher offering the following quantification: "in lab experiments done on animals, sex causes dopamine levels to jump from 100 to 200 units, and ...
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Where do the Ca ions that causes neurotransmitter release from synaptic bouton, come from?
I hope the information you share will help clarify the following doubts and gaps in my knowledge:
Where do the Calcium ions in the influx (which then triggers the neurotransmitter vesicles) come from?...
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What are the chemicals in the gap at a synapse? [duplicate]
I am learning about (introductory level) biological psychology and the synapse structure came into mind. I do understand that neurotransmitters are transmitted between two neurons via the synapse ...
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What determines the influx of calcium ions in the voltage-gated ion channels?
Calcium channels play a crucial role in neuronal signaling by helping the synaptic vesicles to fuse through the synaptic active zone and release their neurotransmitters. My question is, at a given ...
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Are neurotransmitters part of the endocrine system?
I was speaking with a substitute teacher of mine, and we were discussing whether neurotransmitters are part of the endocrine system or not. My class just spent an entire semester on the topic of the ...
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What causes sodium channels to open?
What triggers the opening of sodium channels in a neuronal membrane? Is it acetylcholine that activates sodium channels in the postsynaptic membrane?
Are sodium channels like receptors that have to ...
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What makes synaptic vesicle release probabilistic?
The fusion of synaptic vesicles (SVs) with the plasma membrane of the active zone (AZ) upon arrival of an action potential (AP) at the presynaptic compartment is a tightly regulated probabilistic ...
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Could we have endless pleasure?
Are there any studies that point out that we could have a device in the future or drug that could give us endless amount of pleasure by stimulating or blocking processes in the brain or nerve system? ...
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How long does it take the neurotransmitters to diffuse accross the synaptic cleft?
Neurotransmitters get from the pre-synaptic neuron to the receptors on the post-synaptic neuron by diffusion across the gap between these two (the synaptic cleft). My question is, how much time does ...
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What material fills the synaptic cleft? Is it water?
The synaptic cleft is the gap between the pre-synaptic and post-synaptic neurons, and neurotransmitters are transferred between the neurons within this region. What substance exits in this space, is ...
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How do organophosphates actually work?
The common explanation as to what the primary mechanism of action for organophosphates (and carbamates) is is the inhibition of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase and resulting buildup of acetylcholine ...
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What substances can selectively destroy certain cells?
Recently, I've watched a documentary about how, in the 1980s, people were buying and using drugs from the streets and then becoming paralyzed a few days afterwards. The drugs that they were using were ...
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Is NMDA produced in the body?
On the wiki page for NMDA it says that NMDA is a synthetic substance that mimics glutamate. So why does the body not use glutamate instead of NMDA?
Also how is it possible that our body can produce ...
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Exocytosis of synaptic vesicles
I'm reading the following paper:
http://jcs.biologists.org/content/123/6/819
The part I am really confused about is when they say:
Exocytosis appears to use two alternative pathways: clathrin-...
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How do Neurotransmitters get into the neurons?
This may be a dumb question. I'm not a Neuroscientist. I'm just trying to learn more about the brain to improve my AI learning algorithms…
I understand that there are different kinds of ...
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Can light function as a neurotransmitter?
Any animal with an eye has photoreceptors, which are essentially light-sensitive neurons. Green algae have channelrhodopsin, which are ion channels that open and close in response to light. Clearly, ...
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Action potential frequency presynaptic neuron comared with in post-synaptic neuron/ muscle cells
I am a physicist interested in knowing how the action potential frequency in a presynaptic neuron compares with that in
a) a post-synaptic neuron and
b) membrane depolarisation of muslce cells, ...
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To what extent does the distribution of nerual transmiters in the brain vary human to human?
Suppose $x$ is a position in the brain, and $n_i(x)$ is the density of neuro recepter $i$ around that point. Any given human will have some distribution of neruo recepters $n_i(x)$ through out there ...
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Solubility of lithium carbonate in blood
When a person with Bipolar Disorder ingests a pill of $\ce{Li_2CO_3}$ and it enters the stomach the pill cap is dissolved in the hydrochloric acid; however, when it gets absorbed in the blood how does ...
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Humans have Cannabinoid receptors. Does that mean we're meant to consume cannabis?
I know the answer is no. But what then explains the name of these receptors being specific to Cannabinoid found in cannabis? Aren't Cannabinoid receptors exclusive to Cannabinoid? Why are they named ...
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İrreversible dopamine antagonist vs. Dopamine agonist
Can a dopamine agonist reverse the effects of an irreversible dopamine antagonist?
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Is every neurotransmitter receptor an ion channel?
This is a rudimentary question--perhaps the answer is well known to biologists, but is every neurotransmitter receptor also an ion channel?
For example, NMDAR is a glutamate receptor and cation ...
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How long does it take for a blocked dopamine receptor to be broken down by the body?
Do the blocked dopamine receptors get broken down by the body and if so how often ?
In other words how long does it take for the dopamine receptors blocked by irreversible dopamine antagonists to ...
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Is the ACh receptor more permeable to sodium ions?
The AChR is permeable to sodium and potassium ions only and has a reversal potential of 0mV.
However the Nernst potentials for sodium and potassium ions is ~ +60mV and -88mV respectively. Taking a ...
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Inhibitory effect of GABA through GABA(A) receptors
Over at Wikipedia, the following is written in the article about GABA(A) receptors:
"Upon activation, the GABA(A) receptor selectively conducts Cl− through its pore. Cl- will flow out of the ...
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difference between neurotransmitters and hormones
I have been reading a lot about neurotransmitters and hormones but what's the difference between them both or are they the same? It's been confusing for a while now. Also, why do some ...
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Can acetylcholine leak away from the synapse and cause spasms?
I am currently studying Pharmacology and a question came to mind. We know that Acetylcholine is used as a neurotransmitter in the neuromuscular junction, both Sympathetic as Parasympathetic, but as I ...
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How outside signals creates different chemical composition in the brain? [closed]
Scenario A:
I am walking down the street and my phone rings. I answer and I am told that my ticket that I registered last week was lucky and I won million EUR.
Scenario B:
I am walking down the ...
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Confusion about the construction of the rat's mental map
I'm reading the article "A Topological Paradigm for Hippocampal Spatial Map Formation Using Persistent Homology" by Y. Dabaghian, F. Mémoli, L. Frank, G. Carlsson
I try to understand the following ...
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Does GABA help or hinder anxiety?
This article
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/smartphone-addiction-creates-imbalance-in-brain-300558945.html
Says both
The researchers performed MRS exams on the addicted youth prior to ...
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Does orgasm cause a dopamine crash?
There's some theory around that orgasm will cause a dopamine surge and drop, and that this can lead to a period of low mood or depression. A come down.
Is this true, does orgasm have a negative ...
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Why does excess dopamine activity in the pleasure centers results in less pleasure in schizophrenics?
According to the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia, there is an excess of dopamine in the mesolimbic pathway (nucleus accumbens), and this contributes to the positive symptoms of schizophrenia.
I ...
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Which function do nicotinic receptors have in the periphery?
I came across this question today, it says:
Nicotinic receptors stimulation is directly responsible for …....
I should fill the spaces by one of the following choices:
Increasing the excitability ...
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Why do classic psychedelics not cause withdrawal, despite high tolerance?
"Classical" psychedelics, such as LSD, DMT, and Mescaline, are serotonin agonists that cause hallucinogenic effects. They are notorious for having rapid tolerance, such that after consuming such ...
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Where does the initial action potential come from?
When talking about action potentials we say that previous neurons caused an action potential in this neuron and that this neuron's action potential caused the same in further neurons.
But what is the ...
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What is the difference between neurotransmitters acting as neurotransmitters and hormones?
My main confusion is what differentiates the action of a transmitter substance as a neurotransmitter and as a hormone. For example, when norepinephrine is being talked about as transmitter substance ...
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NMDA receptor mediated plasticity figure reference
Because most of this research is over a decade old, finding a paper with a figure that clearly shows that (neuronal) synaptic plasticity (such as long-term potentiation/LTP) is NMDA receptor mediated ...
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