liveonearth: (Volume 11 spinal tap)
OK, maybe that's a little exaggerated, but basically any drug causes a dopamine surge that changes your brain such that the rewards of normal life don't seem good enough anymore. This study actually found that pot smokers have a bigger nucleus accumbens (the brain area associated with pleasure, reward, and reinforcement learning). They say that 19 million Americans have smoked pot recently. That's a lot.

Here's the article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/04/16/even-casually-smoking-marijuana-can-change-your-brain-study-says/
text )
liveonearth: (Default)
http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_shermer_the_pattern_behind_self_deception.html

This Ted Talk is about belief. It's a quick overview of the science on the subject and some conjecture about how we evolved to be this way. Michael Shermer says that our natural tendency to identify patterns is related to dopamine levels, and that a person who is "too skeptical" may not have enough dopamine. My doctor recently told me that I might benefit from a supplement intended to increase dopamine levels. I am a full bore skeptic. I wonder if it will make a difference. It occurs to me also that my friend B who has Asperger's takes Ritalin prior to attending social events. This is an interesting new association for this unbeliever to contemplate...
liveonearth: (Default)
http://www.jarrow.com/product/188/Neuro_Optimizer consider this product via Vitacost



MY QUESTIONS
what are food sources of citicholine? can we get it from eating brains?
there is choline in eggs and liver. is there citicholine?? how much??
how easily does choline convert to citicholine?
can we support the conversion?
can we by pass this supp using diet???

CHOLINE DEFICIENCY is common (not citicholine, mind you!)
suspect if: fatty liver, hemorrhagic kidney necrosis, infertility, growth impairment, bone abnormalities, hypertension, cancer, atherosclerosis, glaucoma, neuro dz: Alzheimer's,. bipolar. LABS: incr ALT, incr HCYS

notes, some background, links )
liveonearth: (Default)
Recent research has shown that children who are young relative to the other kids in their school classes are more likely to be diagnosed and treated for ADHD. This is presumably because they are younger, less well socialized and more childish than their classmates. That childishness can be problematic so they are singled out by teachers and sent down that path toward mind bending pharmaceuticals.

Last weekend's seminar supported my impression that ADHD may be a low dopamine state, either due to decreased levels of the neurotransmitter or decreased receptor activity or numbers. It also supported my impression that low dopamine can follow from childhood trauma. We all know how vicious kids can be, so just being the youngest may constitute trauma. We also know that low status primates within a group have lower serotonin levels.

I personally know two adult humans who are beneficially treated for their ADHD with ritalin. Ritalin's mechanism of action is unknown, but it is thought to influence several neurotransmitters, most especially dopamine. Some texts say it is a dopamine and serotonin reuptake inhibitor.

My question is this: How does being a younger, smaller and lower status individual in a group of mammals affect your dopamine function? And what IS the relationship of dopamine function to ADHD?
liveonearth: (Default)

Just strained out the herb and bottled the tincture: Melissa (lemon balm) in lemon vodka. When are we having screwdrivers?
notes )
liveonearth: (Default)
recent study at Stanford University
n = 15 students currently in a relationship minimum 9 mo
this stage considered to the first phase of intense love
used MRI to look at brain activity
while looking at picture of loved one researchers gave them mild doses of pain
viewing the picture of their loved ones reduced perceptions of pain
Dr Jarred Younger said that “love-induced analgesia” involves primitive functions of the brain
worked like opioid
dopamine involvement
"One of the key sites is the nucleus accumbens, a key reward addiction centre for opioids, cocaine and other drugs of abuse."
"The region tells the brain that you really need to keep doing this."

Professor Paul Gilbert, neuropsychologist from University of Derby:
“…people who feel alone and depressed may have very low pain thresholds, whereas the reverse can be true for people who feel secure and cared for."

SOURCES
http://www.dotsperiod.com/1938/being-in-love-can-be-analgesic-researchers-found-out/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11537063
liveonearth: (Default)
I look up cocaine and find this impressive list of slang about it. My goodness. I have never tried it in any form. It was "discovered" in 1860 when someone happened to notice that tasting it numbs the tongue. Pretty soon everybody was using it for toothaches, and in 1894 doctors started using it as a local anesthetic for surgeries, especially to the nose, eyes (lacrimal ducts!), and sinuses. Freud didn't think it was addictive, but it is, because it activates the mesolimbic dopamine pathway, the reward and desire pathway, the addiction pathway. Cocaine is a dopamine reuptake inhibitor. It is also a serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. But these effects should not happen if it is a tiny local dose. The local numbing effect occurs because cocaine blocks nerve permeability to sodium, preventing nerve transmission. The vasoconstrictive effect is due to the inhibition of norepi reuptake. Cocaine is the only anesthetic that is vasoconstrictive, the rest vasodilate necessitating the use of injected epinephrine to minimize bleeding and loss of the anesthetic into the systemic circulation. Can anybody tell me where the world's bounty of cocaine is coming from these days?
liveonearth: (Default)


Neuroleptic drugs act by blocking dopamine receptors (mainly D2 receptors), and can result in dyskinesia similar to what is experienced by people with Parkinson's. For some reason writhing and shaking movements can be stopped in some patients by blue-tinted sunglasses.
liveonearth: (Default)
http://www.wired.com/medtech/drugs/magazine/17-09/ff_placebo_effect?currentPage=all

AWESOME article. Nutshell: research has show that the biochemistry of the placebo response is due to anticipation-activated opioids and dopamine. Effects of opioids include pain relief, heart rate and breathing modulation. Effects of dopamine include improved motor function in Parkinson's. Both contribute to elevated mood, sharpened cognitive ability, decreased digestive disorders and insomnia, and lower levels of insulin and cortisol. But the whole article is well worth reading. Here's the text. I would take notes but I admire this guy's prose too much to chop it up. This article matters. )
liveonearth: (Default)
--second messenger = diffusable signaling molecule produced or secreted after signal is received
--molecule activates effector proteins inside cell-->cell response to signal
--can be synthesized/released and broken down again in specific rxns
--production, storage, and destruction can be localized
this stuff is pretty hazy so far, clarification much needed )
liveonearth: (Default)
What does pituitary mean, from the Latin? (think onomatopoeia...)
to spit mucus
ptuo = to spit, pituita = mucus

What do you call a hormone that acts on neighboring cells?
paracrine

Are pituitary hormones steroid, steroid type, or peptide hormones?
peptide, all of them are

What do you call the loss of lateral visual fields?
bitemporal hemianopsia

Damage to what part of the pituitary causes diabetes insipidus, and which hormone is lacking?
self quiz from SSL's notes )
liveonearth: (Default)
ScienceDaily (Nov. 28, 2008) — Obesity gradually numbs the taste sensation of rats to sweet foods and drives them to consume larger and ever-sweeter meals, according to neuroscientists. Findings from the Penn State study could uncover a critical link between taste and body weight, and reveal how flab hooks the brain on sugary food.
notes )
liveonearth: (Default)
Practiced yoga at the school this morning. Was up before 6am. Mind is going. I believe that there is a biological link between the strength of the core and the experience of BEING. Notice how all the really brilliant, centered people all sit up so straight? Walk so tall? Having a strong core and an aligned spine links, I think, into our limbic systems, into the most primitive part of our brains. Walking resets the emotions. Terry male says I have an overactive amygdala which is what causes me to have religious experiences. Brons says the amygdala is all about fear and aversion, anxiety, fear conditioning, antinociception and autonomic adjustments. Religious experiences, fear and aversion. I wonder where awe falls into that mix.
I am fascinated by all my coursework right now but especially the brain material from Brons )
liveonearth: (Default)

Ventral tegmental dopamine neurons respond only to UNPREDICTED REWARDS. When the goodie is predictable, those particular dopamine cells stop firing. They's the ones that say "Oh YEAH" to something one discovers as enjoyable and satisfying. Smoking a cigarette fires those cells even when it's not unpredicted, it provokes that Oh YEAH chemistry every single time you light up.

It's the dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens that stengthens the links between the stimulus and the wanting. Wanting and liking are not the same.

boring to most, notes from organ systems class and later added notes from Intoxicating Minds, this reminds me of the wampus game on the old obsorne PC's, draw your twenty rooms and start sketching in the links )

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