Behavioral Sciences - Psych/Soc: Key Neurotransmitters

Dopamine

A neurotransmitter associated with movement, attention and learning and the brain's pleasure and reward system.

Serotonin

A neurotransmitter that functions in the brain to regulate mood, appetite, sleep, and intestinal movement in the GI tract

In the autonomic nervous system, what neurotransmitter is used to send signals from neurons of the parasympathetic nervous system to their target tissues?

Acetylcholine

What is the neurotransmitter that is at work to communicate between the central nervous system and the autonomic nervous system which controls involuntary unconscious behaviors?

Acetylcholine

What neurotransmitter is at work when you move a muscle?

Acetylcholine

Serotonin regulates intestinal movement and it turns out that some serotonin receptor antagonists help treat chemotherapy induced nausea by preventing serotonin from doing what?

Acting on its receptors

Dowsing is the "ability" to detect hidden valuable items, such as water or gold. Practitioners hold dowsing rods in their hands to detect these hidden caches. The rod appears to move up and down outside of the practitioner's control. Which neurotransmitter is primarily responsible for the generation of behaviors observed during dowsing? A. Dopamine B. Serotonin C. GABA D. Acetylcholine

D. Acetylcholine This response is characterized by movements of the skeletal muscle (writing, dowsing), which is primarily carried out by the actions of acetylcholine released at the neuromuscular junction.

Glutamate

Excitatory neurotransmitter, depolarizes postsynaptic neurons, pushing them closer to the action potential threshold

About 90% of neuronal connections in the brain involve what neurotransmitter?

Glutamate

How do selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) work?

They boost the available levels of serotonin in synapses by preventing serotonin from being taken back up by neurons. They keep serotonin in the synapse longer, allowing the brain to get more bang for its buck from each serotonin molecule

agonist

a molecule that, by binding to a receptor site, stimulates a response

antagonists

bind to a receptor but do not activate it or cause a response which prevents the receptor from being bound by an agonist, stops a neurotransmitter or drug from being able to exerts its effects on that receptor

partial agonists

certain agonists do not evoke as strong of an effect as the original substance

Low serotonin levels are associated with

depression

The loss of what neurotransmitter secreting neurons in a part of the brain called the substantia nigra leads to Parkinson's disease?a

dopamine

GABA

gamma-aminobutyric acid; the primary inhibitory transmitter in the nervous system

What is the most common neurotransmitter?

glutamate

What does GABA do?

hyperpolarizes postsynaptic neurons, pushing them further away from the action potential threshold

Norepinephrine

neurotransmitter involved in the fight or flight response by elevating heart rate and blood pressure

Acetylcholine (ACh)

neurotransmitter responsible for activating muscle contraction at the neuromuscular junction

Endorphins

neurotransmitters that suppress pain and can produce a euphoric response

Serotonin is an agonist of the various subtypes of serotonin receptors, but there are several psychedelic and hallucinogenic drugs that stimulate a certain serotonin receptor subtype, these are what?

serotonin receptor agonists