how neurodopamins effects the brain cell and herbs possible effects on it
Dopamine is a neurotransmitor (of impulses, rewards) that brain cells use to comunicate with each other. Dopamine isn't just about pleasure, it is also a crucial chemichal that allows human beings to make sense of reality. In the brain, dopamine plays an important role in the regulation of reward and movement. As part of the reward pathway, dopamine is manufactured in nerve cell bodies located within the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and is released in the nucleus accumbens and the prefrontal cortex. Its motor functions are linked to a separate pathway, with cell bodies in the substantia nigra that manufacture and release dopamine into the striatum. Dopamine binds to its receptors quickly. This neurotransmitter is also quickly removed from its receptors as long as dopamine levels in the synapse are sufficiently high. However, drugs can affect dopamine levels. Some drugs increase dopamine by preventing dopamine reuptake, leaving more dopamine in the synapse. An example is the widely abused stimulant drug, cocaine.
There are dopamine signaling systems that form loops from the more deep brain (ancient) areas to the more recently evolved systems in the cortex. The cortex holds the executive power of future planning and decision making largely based on gaming theory and statistical analysis of future outcomes, usually with the deepest meaning relating to securing resources for success of future offspring. Dopamine can be released when these goals are realized, promoting reward, but also dopamine helps to modulate fine tune and make possible these actions through regulation of movement, and driving the cortex forward. An interdependent looping circuitry. Addiction is linked to modulation of dopamine signaling, leading to both very basic primitive symptoms such as desire for the drug, and pleasure from it, as well as more complicated cognitive effects, such as depression and hallucinations and change in personality. Drugs that can cause addiction that dopamine is involved in include, amphetamines . However, more complicated addiction paradigms including gambling and food addictions are more complicated but dopamine is involved.
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