Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Buy the book
Though
peptides are a major chemical code in the limbic system, they
aren’t the only one. There’s plenty of other
communication molecules. One family is collectively called the
‘amines’, and one member of this family is serotonin.
It’s become rather famous in recent
years………..
You are standing at one end of a long corridor in a large building devoted to neuroscience research. Down one side is a number of doors, each a lab. Behind each door is a different, but equally intense, scientist. Hugely competitive, and deeply suspicious of each other, they don’t talk much. The first lab works on the control of body temperature, the second on the release of hormones from the pituitary, the third on pain pathways in the brain, the
fourth on eating behaviour, the fifth on sex behaviour, the
sixth on learning. All of them, unknown to the others
(communication is that bad) have been sent the same drug to test:
it’s one that they all know reduces the level of serotonin in the
brain.
Behind each door there is equal excitement. All our scientists are getting positive results, and a positive result means a paper (an article in a scientific journal)………
It is clear that if serotonin is altered by stress (as it is) then this will affect a whole range of responses, and in rather a consistent way. In general, we might conclude, lowered serotonin results in reactions (whatever they may be) being intensified, whereas the opposite follows raised serotonin. Serotonin might act as a kind of neural volume control. This implies that altering serotonin may not affect the response itself, but the likelihood of its occurring in a given situation…….
The limbic system is full of these amines [eg serotonin], which makes drug companies wonder whether they can produce ‘limbic’ drugs that pick out eating, or sex, or other limbic activities. I doubt it. Amines aren’t really a code in the limbic system in the same sense as peptides: there are too few of them - not enough ‘words’. But the important fact is that amines do things that are different from peptides. The major distinction is that amines seem to be able to alter a whole range of brain functions, whereas peptides are much more specific. That doesn’t make them any less important or interesting. They may amplify or moderate the action of peptides. To understand more fully how the limbic system works, and how the brain copes with demand, we need to know much more about how these very different molecules co-operate with each other.
You are standing at one end of a long corridor in a large building devoted to neuroscience research. Down one side is a number of doors, each a lab. Behind each door is a different, but equally intense, scientist. Hugely competitive, and deeply suspicious of each other, they don’t talk much. The first lab works on the control of body temperature, the second on the release of hormones from the pituitary, the third on pain pathways in the brain, the
fourth on eating behaviour, the fifth on sex behaviour, the
sixth on learning. All of them, unknown to the others
(communication is that bad) have been sent the same drug to test:
it’s one that they all know reduces the level of serotonin in the
brain. Behind each door there is equal excitement. All our scientists are getting positive results, and a positive result means a paper (an article in a scientific journal)………
It is clear that if serotonin is altered by stress (as it is) then this will affect a whole range of responses, and in rather a consistent way. In general, we might conclude, lowered serotonin results in reactions (whatever they may be) being intensified, whereas the opposite follows raised serotonin. Serotonin might act as a kind of neural volume control. This implies that altering serotonin may not affect the response itself, but the likelihood of its occurring in a given situation…….
The limbic system is full of these amines [eg serotonin], which makes drug companies wonder whether they can produce ‘limbic’ drugs that pick out eating, or sex, or other limbic activities. I doubt it. Amines aren’t really a code in the limbic system in the same sense as peptides: there are too few of them - not enough ‘words’. But the important fact is that amines do things that are different from peptides. The major distinction is that amines seem to be able to alter a whole range of brain functions, whereas peptides are much more specific. That doesn’t make them any less important or interesting. They may amplify or moderate the action of peptides. To understand more fully how the limbic system works, and how the brain copes with demand, we need to know much more about how these very different molecules co-operate with each other.
Scientific and literary quotes.