When to have neurotransmitters work slow and fast?
Hi 3 Dunks. Sorry to disappoint you, but you don't have any control over how fast or slow your neurotransmitters function. Not unless you alter them with medication such as an SSRI, which stands for Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor, for instance. It isn't how fast or slow they work, it's whether you're brain is getting too much or too little of a particular chemical like dopamine or serotonin. There are others as well.
Neurotransmitters in the brain... how do they work?
Basically neurotransmitters transmit to other neurons (like a message delivery system). Different chemicals create different action potentials based on the receptors. Look up "action potential" to see the whole process of a neuron firing. After a series of firings results can occur depending on what the stimulus is. Amino acids, peptides and monamines control the body through the release of hormones in the endocrine system, or the binding of molecules to receptors that cause the contraction of muscles in the cardiovascular and lymphatic systems. Edit: Also, some chemicals are excitatory and others act to inhibit certain functions.
What neurotransmitters does cannabis work on?
Anandamide is involved in regulating mood, memory, appetite, pain, cognition, and emotions. When cannabis is introduced into the body, its active ingredient, Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), can therefore interfere with all of these functions.THC begins this process by binding to the CB1 receptors for anandamide. These receptors then modify the activity of several intracellular enzymes, including cAMP, whose activity they reduce. Less cAMP means less protein kinase A. The reduced activity of this enzyme affects the potassium and calcium channels so as to reduce the amount of neurotransmitters released. The general excitability of the brain’s neural networks is thus reduced as well.
What is the importance of neurotransmitters?
Neurotransmitters are the brains chemical that communicate information throughout your brain and body. They relay information between neuron to neuron. Neurotransmitters are what tell your heart to beat, lungs to breath, and stomach to digest. It also affects mood, sleep, concentration, ect. Without neurotransmitters your brain would fail to utilize serotonin, dopemine, norepinephrine and much more needed chemicals that is vital to both your brain and body.However, people put to much attention on the neurotransmitters itself and actually fail to realize that if it weren't for the synapses and receptors in our brain the chemical compound would not have the ability to secrete itself throughout our bodies. So let's take a moment to not focus on the neurotransmitters, but more importantly the synapse! *CLAPS* *SMILES* *CLAPS*.
Hormones vs. neurotransmitter?
Hormones travel very slowly. I learned this in my Psychology Class. Hormones are released by glands and then go into the blood stream to reach the brain (or any other part of the body). Neurotransmitters are specifically in the brain and are released by electrical impulses sent from brain neuron to brain neuron extremely quickly. (Neurotransmitters go across the synaptic gap from a neuron axon terminal to dendrite that pulls it into the cell body, this info is a little more deep) Electrical impulses happen in the brain and then sometimes glands will release hormones as apart of the reaction.
How are neurotransmitters created and stored?
If I remember correctly, completed neurotransmitters are stored in vacuoles in or near the axon terminal for exocytosis, which is the process by which the neurotransmitter’s vacuole fuses with the cell membrane and is released into the (in the case of neurons) synaptic cleft.Creation of neurotransmitters seems to depend on how large or small they are. Iirc, “small molecule” (the first kind of) neurotransmitters are synthesized by an enzyme bringing together the precursors present in the axon terminal. The precursors could be taken up by the terminal membrane, or preexisting because of intracellular processes.Comparatively, neuropeptides (the other kind) can be up to ~36 amino acids long, and because of their size are created by processes associated with your run of the mill DNA transcription into mRNA, translation into amino acids, and processing and packaging by the rough ER and golgi apparatus respectively. The mRNA itself is transcribed off of a section of DNA specific to peptide associated mRNA.Disclaimer: I’m a casual, rather than formal student of neuroscience (for now), so if anyone qualified spots erroneous information, please by all means correct it.
What is the difference between neurotransmitters and neuromodulators?
A neurotransmitter is one of several substances released by the nerve ending of a neuron that is used to communicate with the adjacent neuron. Chemicals like Serotonin, Acetylcholine, Dopamine, GABA, Glycine, and Norepinephrine are considered neurotransmitters. They are released by the presynaptic neuron and either excite or inhibit the post synaptic neuron. They are quickly degraded in the synaptic cleft or taken up by the presynaptic neuron to limit the amount of time they are in the synaptic cleft. Neuromodulators are not the same. They are released by the nerve endings and have their effect sometimes quite far from the neuron from which they were released. They are not rapidly degraded or taken up, so the amount of time for their activity is not limited as in neurotransmitters. They can either dampen or enhance the excitability of their effector neurons. Examples of neuromodulators are opioid peptides such as enkephalins, endorphins, dynorphins. Some neurotransmitters also act as neuromodulators: substance P, octopamine, serotonin, an acetylcholine are such examples.
How do agonist and antagonist neurotransmitters work?
There is no such thing as an “antagonist neurotransmitter.” All neurotransmitters are, by definition, agonists.An antagonist is a chemical — often a synthetic compound like a drug — that blocks neurotransmission. So an antagonist is the opposite of a neurotransmitter.Agonists, of which neurotransmitters are a special case, work by binding to a neuroreceptor on the outside of a neuron and activating the receptor. What the neuroreceptor does when activated varies from receptor to receptor. Some neuroreceptors excite the neuron by allowing Na+ ions into the cell; others inhibit the neuron by allowing Cl- ions into the cell. Still others trigger various complicated regulatory processes and so are neither excitatory nor inhibitory.