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Handout 2 - Neurotransmitters

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16 views3 pages

Handout 2 - Neurotransmitters

Uploaded by

foodformind21
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Serotonin

Serotonin is a chemical messenger naturally found in the brain and around the body.
Serotonin is involved in controlling your mood, and low serotonin levels in the brain
are thought to play a part in depression. Many medicines that are used to treat
mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression work by increasing the amount of
serotonin in the brain.

Endorphins
Endorphins are the body's natural painkillers. This hormone both relieves pain and
creates a general feeling of well-being. The name of these hormones comes from
the term "endogenous morphine." "Endogenous" because they're produced in our
bodies; morphine refers to the opioid painkiller whose actions they mimic.
About 20 different types of endorphins exist. The best studied of these is beta-
endorphin, which is the one associated with the runner's high.
If natural endorphins lessen pain and boost mood, why not increase this effect by
flooding the brain with artificial opiates? Because it would disrupt the brain’s
chemical balancing act. When flooded with opiate drugs such as heroin and
morphine, the brain—to maintain its chemical balance—may stop producing its own
natural opiates. When the drug is withdrawn, the brain may then be deprived of any
form of opiate, causing intense discomfort. For suppressing the body’s own
neurotransmitter production, nature charges a price.

Dopamine
Dopamine plays a big role in your reward system. When you do something that feels
good, your brain releases a rush of dopamine. You naturally seek more of that good
feeling by repeating the behavior that made you feel good. This could be anything
from eating delicious food to binge-watching your favorite show. Or more harmful
behaviors like drug or alcohol overuse.
Rather than giving us pleasure itself, as is commonly thought, dopamine motivates
us to do things we think will bring pleasure. As the brain’s major reward and
pleasure neurotransmitter, it’s what drives us to seek pizza when we’re hungry.
Scientists use dopamine to measure the addictive potential of any experience. The
higher the dopamine release, the more addictive the thing.
We experience a hike in dopamine in anticipation of doing something as well as
when we do the thing itself, which makes us want to continue doing it. As soon as
it’s finished, we experience a comedown or dopamine dip. That’s because the brain
operates via a self-regulating process called homeostasis, meaning that for every
high, there is a low. In this comedown state, we really want that second piece of
chocolate or to watch another episode, but if we’re not severely addicted, the
craving soon passes.
Drugs such as cocaine can cause a big, fast increase of dopamine in your brain.
That satisfies your natural reward system in a big way. But repeated drug use also
raises the threshold for this kind of pleasure. This means you need to take more to
get the same high. Meanwhile, drugs make your body less able to produce
dopamine naturally. This leads to emotional lows when you’re sober.
Pain pleasure balance
Imagine our brains contain a balance – a scale with a fulcrum in the center. When
nothing is on the balance, it’s level with the ground. When we experience pleasure,
dopamine is released in our reward pathway and the balance tips to the side of
pleasure. The more our balance tips, and the faster it tips, the more pleasure we
feel.
But an important thing about the balance is that it wants to remain level, that is, in
equilibrium. It does not want to be tipped for very long to one side or another.
Hence, every time the balance tips toward pleasure, powerful self-regulating
mechanisms kick into action to bring it level again. These self-regulating
mechanisms do not require conscious thought or an act of will. They just happen,
like a reflex. Once the balance is level, it keeps going, tipping an equal and opposite
amount to the side of pain.
Tolerance (neuroadaptation)
We’ve all experienced craving in the aftermath of pleasure. Whether it’s reaching
for a second potato chip or clicking the link for another round of video games, it’s
natural to want to re-create those good feelings or try not to let them fade away.
The simple solution is to keep eating, or playing, or watching, or reading. But there’s
a problem with that.
With repeated exposure to the same or similar pleasure stimulus, the initial
deviation to the side of pleasure gets weaker and shorter and the after-response to
the side of pain gets stronger and longer, a process scientists call neuroadaptation.
That is, with repetition, we need more of our drug of choice to get the same effect.
Needing more of a substance to feel pleasure, or experiencing less pleasure at a
given dose, is called tolerance. Tolerance is an important factor in the development
of addiction.
With prolonged, heavy drug use, the pleasure–pain balance eventually gets
weighted to the side of pain. Our hedonic (pleasure) set point changes as our
capacity to experience pleasure goes down and our vulnerability to pain goes up. In
real life, pleasure and pain are more complex than the workings of a balance. With
prolonged and repeated exposure to pleasurable stimuli, our capacity to tolerate
pain decreases, and our threshold for experiencing pleasure increases.
The neurological machinery for processing pleasure and pain has remained largely
intact throughout evolution and across species. It is perfectly adapted for a world of
scarcity. Without pleasure we wouldn’t eat or drink. Without pain we wouldn’t
protect ourselves from injury and death. By raising our neural set point with
repeated pleasures, we become endless strivers, never satisfied with what we have,
always looking for more.
But herein lies the problem. Human beings, the ultimate seekers, have responded
too well to the challenge of pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain. As a result, we’ve
transformed the world from a place of scarcity to a place of overwhelming
abundance.
Our brains are not evolved for this world of plenty. We are drowning in dopamine.

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