DOPAMINE:By: Grace Kirvida and Sarah Larrive

M O N T H L Y N E W S L E T T E R

Anatomy

Interesting fact: Too much dopamine can cause schizophrenia, and too little dopamine causes Parkinson’s.

4th HourDecember 1st, 2011

Dopamine has many functions in the brain, including important roles in behavior and cognition, perception of pain and pleasure, emotions, voluntary movement, motivation and reward, inhibition of prolactin production (involved in lactation), sleep, mood, attention, and learning. Dopamine is both excitatory and inhibitory.

When dopamine is either elevated or low – we can have focus issues such as not remembering where we put our keys, forgetting what a paragraph said when we just finished reading it or simply daydreaming and not

being able to stay on task.  Dopamine is

also responsible for our drive or desire to get

things done – or motivation.  Stimulants such as medications for ADD/ADHD and caffeine cause dopamine to be pushed into the synapse so that focus is improved.  Unfortunately, stimulating dopamine consistently can cause a depletion of dopamine over time.

Dopamine has many affects and is responsible for aiding in many processes within the central nervous system. Dopamine plays an important part of cognition and movement processes as well as with reward and punishment behaviors.

General Info:Neurotransmitters are the brain chemicals that communicate information throughout our brain and body. They relay signals between nerve cells, called “neurons.” The brain uses neurotransmitters to tell your heart to beat, your lungs to breathe, and your stomach to digest. They can also affect mood, sleep, concentration, weight, and can cause adverse symptoms when they are out of balance.

Location:

They are present in all of the nerve cells, but predominately in the ganglia or nerve bundles of invertebrates, and in the central nervous system (brain and

spinal cord) of vertebrates.

Functions:

To transmit a signal between neurons.

YouTube Link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haNoq8UbSyc

Further Information:

This link is to a website that discusses the different types of drugs and medication that dopamine interacts with.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/106737-medications-increase-dopamine-levels/

Neurotransmitters:

C6H3(OH)2-CH2-CH2-NH2