Figure 4.1 Example of single cell RNAseq from human and marmoset brains. Individual dots represent individual cells isolated from post-mortem motor cortex of humans or marmoset monkeys. Dots are grouped into clusters of similar cells based on their global mRNA expression (their…
General Neurochemistry Principles The brain obtains lipids, amino acids, and sugars from the metabolism of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates from the diet. Neurons modify these precursor molecules enzymatically into neurotransmitters, store them inside small lipid-walled vesicles and maintain them until…
Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you should be able to The brain contains two important families of neurotransmitters that are physiologically active lipid compounds called either endocannabinoids or prostaglandins. They use related enzymatic systems for their production…
Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you should be able to Dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine. Dopamine (often abbreviated DA), norepinephrine (often abbreviated NE), and epinephrine are sequentially synthesized from the same dietary amino acid precursor, tyrosine. Norepinephrine and…
Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you should be able to In the following sections, you will learn general principles about brain chemistry. Neurons access nutrients from the diet, or from their own neuronal membranes, to produce the neurotransmitters that…
Figure 3.1 Neuropeptide neurotransmitters are synthesized via a complicated, time consuming (about two to four weeks), and energy-demanding process of reading the DNA code to produce mRNA that can be translated into a long string of amino acids. Chapter Outline 3.1 General Neurochemistry…
Neural Communication Neurons are bilingual, using two inter-related but distinct signaling systems. Communication between neurons primarily uses the ancient language of chemical and receptor that all your cells use, though with adaptations for highly targeted and reliable communication. Grafted onto…
Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you should be able to This is a long and difficult chapter. That’s because neuroscientists have succeeded in unraveling some of the important principles of neural communication. Moreover, what we covered was…
Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you should be able to Before we took our deep dive into bioelectricity, we marveled at a video that used voltage-sensitive dyes to let us “see” action potentials spreading rapidly through a…
Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you should be able to In a chemistry lab at Harvard university, a team of researchers led by Adam Cohen is developing new ways to ‘listen in’ on the electrical signals in…