Description
Psych C61
Week 5 Notes
Neurotransmitters:
● Acetylcholine (ACh)
○ Found in-
■ Parasympathetic nervous system
■ Neuromuscular junction (NMJ)
■ Brain
○ Produced by-
■ Basal forebrain nuclei
■ Midbrain pontine nuclei
● Serotonin
○ Produced by-
■ Raphe nucleus
● Dopamine
○ Produced by-
■ Ventral tegmentum Don't forget about the age old question of How is elimination method used in most formulas?
■ Substantia nigra
● Norephrine
○ Produced by-
■ Locus coeruleus
- All of these neurotransmitters are produced by isolated clusters of neurons that are then released to extensive parts of the body
If you want to learn more check out What does a finite universe imply?
- Glutamate and GABA are produced everywhere
Blood Brain Barrier (BBB)
● Tiny gaps between blood vessel cell walls
● Blood vessel cells in the brain don’t have these gaps
● In order to cross blood brain barrier there needs to be some sort of mechanism ○ Transport:
■ Glucose sugar, some amino acids
○ Diffusion:
■ Lipophilic and hydrophobic molecules can diffuse through the lipid bilayer cell wall
Toxins:
● Botulinum toxin (Botox)
○ Associated with bacterium clostridium botulinum
○ Taken up into ACh presynaptic terminals
○ Interferes with NT release
○ Reduces effectiveness of ACh at NMJ
○ Can’t infiltrate blood brain barrier
○ Typical dosage
■ ~100 units
● 1 unit = .05 ng
● 5 billionth of a gram
○ Human LD50
■ ~2ng/kg
■ Death from paralysis of respiration
● Tetrodotoxin (TTX)
○ Found in pufferfish
○ Blocks voltage gated sodium channels
○ Doesn’t cross blood brain barrier
○ Peripheral nerves unable to generate normal action potentials
■ Symptoms:
● Numbness If you want to learn more check out How does an organism defend itself?
● Muscle weakness
● Paralysis
○ Death by respiratory paralysis
● PSP
○ Paralytic shellfish poisoning
○ Saxitoxin
○ Doesn’t cross blood brain barrier
○ Blocks voltage gated sodium channels
● Batrachotoxins
○ Causes voltage gated sodium channels to stay open We also discuss several other topics like What are the aspects of damage limitation in military?
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If you want to learn more check out What is covariation in psychology?
- All have different methods of altering the voltage gated sodium channels
People:
● Paracelsus (1493-1541)
○ “Everything is a poison. The difference between a poison and a remedy depends on the dose.”
Pharmakon
-Means medicine and poison simultaneously