The neurotransmitter dopamine (DA) has several important functions. For instance, it known to play a role in how we feel pleasure, as well as in our ability to concentrate on everyday task, maintain focus, and learn specific ...
The neurotransmitter dopamine influences the activity of a wide variety of brain areas. A deficiency of this substance can have drastic consequences: The death of dopamine-producing nerve cells in the substantia nigra—a ...
Sep 14, 2021
0
35
Contrary to common thinking, cocaine triggers an addiction in only 20 percent of consumers. But what happens in their brains when they lose control of their consumption? Thanks to a recent experimental method, neuroscientists ...
Sep 9, 2021
0
217
My colleagues and I recently found that we were able to train mice to voluntarily increase the size and frequency of seemingly random dopamine impulses in their brains. Conventional wisdom in neuroscience has held that dopamine ...
Sep 3, 2021
0
13
The key to overcoming addictions and psychiatric disorders lives deep inside the netherworld of our brains and the circuitry that causes us to feel good.
Sep 1, 2021
0
462
A structure located at the base of the brain, the hypothalamus, orchestrates motivational states including hunger, thirst, and the motivation to mate. In a study published in the journal Nature, researchers at Beth Israel ...
Aug 25, 2021
0
385
Consciousness is arguably the most important scientific topic there is. Without consciousness, there would after all be no science. But while we all know what it is like to be conscious—meaning that we have personal awareness ...
Aug 5, 2021
0
586
Researchers from The Australian National University (ANU), in collaboration with The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, have developed a new type of hydrogel that could radically transform how we treat Parkinson's ...
Aug 3, 2021
0
516
From the thrill of hearing an ice cream truck approaching to the spikes of pleasure while sipping a fine wine, the neurological messenger known as dopamine has been popularly described as the brain's "feel good" chemical ...
Jul 23, 2021
0
765
Like female voles, connections between oxytocin neurons in the hypothalamus and dopamine neurons in reward areas drive parental behaviors in male voles, according to new research published in JNeurosci.
Jul 5, 2021
0
5
