An interesting article on Arvid Carlsson, the man who established dopamine as a neurotransmitter: Neuroscience: The molecular wake-up call.
Also, I don’t have time to read this article which touches on dopaminergic neuron neurogenesis right now, but I’m going to stick it here for future reference.
Archive for May, 2007
50 Years of Dopamine
Posted in Dopamine, neurogenesis on May 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Melanin notes
Posted in Dopamine, Melanin, evolution on May 26, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Do Fungi Feast on Radiation?
Like plants that grow toward the sun, dark fungi, blackened by the skin pigment melanin, gravitate toward radiation in contaminated soil. Scientists have observed the organisms—somewhere between plants and animals—blackening the land around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine in the years since its 1986 meltdown. “Organisms that make melanin [...]
Serotonin and Immune Function
Posted in Serotonin, immune system on May 22, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Commonly Used Antidepressants May Also
Affect Human Immune System
Drugs that treat depression by manipulating the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain may also affect the user’s immune system in ways that are not yet understood, say scientists from Georgetown University Medical Center and a Canadian research institute.
That’s because the investigators found, for the first time, that serotonin [...]
Intestinal Serotonin
Posted in Serotonin, digestion on May 22, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
In addition to being a major neurotransmitter involved in brain function, serotonin is also used in the gut to help regulate digestion. This is a perfect example of why there might be a special relationship between brain function and diet.
Alterations in Intestinal Serotonin in Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Dyspepsia
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that helps regulate [...]
Antidepressants and Neurogenesis
Posted in Fluoxetine, Serotonin, depression, environment, neurogenesis on May 21, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
A good article on the history of neurogenesis and on environmental factors in brain development. I don’t like the casual use of the word self, which has come to fashionable use in the service of popularizing neuroscience. Journalists, especially, like to throw the term around. I’m not now going to go into all the problems [...]
Pesticides and Parkinson’s
Posted in Dopamine, environment on May 21, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Past exposure to low levels of pesticides that linger in the environment might accelerate the development of Parkinson’s, which would put baby boomers and millions of other aging Americans at risk of developing the brain disease earlier in life.
At the American Chemical Society meeting in San Francisco last week, researchers presented new findings that link [...]
contacting the solid ground of sanity
Posted in Serotonin, agriculture, depression, environment, schizophrenia, soil on May 14, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Obviously, the last topic is being put on hold. I’m not going to go into the reasons for the hiatus, but I do want to dust this blog off. I’m heading back to school, and I’m expecting that, in time, this will become my primary blog.
The ultimate focus of this blog will be on how [...]
