Dopamine
Nate Trockenbrot
Kuhn 3rd Period
Dopamine is simply a messenger in the brain. It is released by people themselves, their activities, and certain drugs. The rationale of this research is to resolve how this neurotransmitter changes with age, and to see how dopamine affects the brain, as well as the body.
This neurotransmitter can greatly affect your mindset of some activities. A psychology professor at Vanderbilt University, Steve Zald, conducted a study this year. He used PET scans on people that were so-called “thrill seekers”. He discovered that they had less auto receptors (dopamine shutoff valves) than the average human. This means that when they do something new, the dopamine released has a greater effect giving them a more euphoric feeling. So when these people, such as Jack Tackle (mountain climber/guide), climb a mountain, they experience a euphoric sensation once they reach the top. Their body then wants to climb an even higher mountain in order to “get that rush again”. This is due to the fact that once the mountain has been climbed, the experience is predictable. Unfortunately, Zald describes that the pull of euphoria can sometimes overpower a novelty seeker’s ability to properly evaluate risk. “The reward is just too great, so they’ll do things that most other people wouldn’t do.” To recompense for this, novelty-seekers are meticulous planners. BASE jumpers and alpinists strive for minimal risks. This was written in an article by a researcher at the Queensland University of Technology in Australia. So, the real danger for novelty-seekers is to manage the danger, as well as their dopamine (Melville, 2010).
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In conclusion, dopamine affects your body by forcing it to crave that euphoric sensation. This is because dopamine is a pleasure hormone, but certain feelings of pleasure or euphoria, aren’t easily attained. You will then do dangerous things to get these feelings.
As a chemical messenger, dopamine is similar to adrenaline. Dopamine affects brain processes that control movement, emotional response, and ability to experience pleasure and pain (Erickson).
You may ask, “What else releases dopamine besides physical activities?” Well, drugs are commonly related to dopamine. Stimulants such as crack and cocaine, directly affect your brain. Most stimulants cause the brain to release an overdose of dopamine. The user will then experience an extreme feeling of euphoria. Just like a rock climber, the user will try harder and harder to reach this same feeling. Yet, what is commonly misunderstood is the first time is the highest feeling of euphoria, the user will reach. People die due to over dose of the drug, which will cause the brain to keep releasing dopamine. Symptoms of overdose of dopamine include, but are not limited to, addictions to medicine, hyper sexuality, and even gambling. On the other hand, dopamine can be used in a positive way, medically speaking. In 1970, the treatment of Parkinson disease was revolutionized. The FDA approved dopa, in the form of L-dopa, to be used in the US (Shiel, 2004).
L-dopa is given as a medicine because if dopamine were to be given as a drug, to patients, it would not be able to the blood-brain barrier. L-dopa, on the other hand, can cross the blood-brain barrier, easily. L-dopa is also given to patients with naturally low blood-pressure due to the fact that it increases blood-pressure and heart rate. Just as mentioned before, even if dopamine were given as a drug, it doesn’t directly affect the central nervous system.
As, you can see, dopamine does affect the body and mind, but how does it affect the brain, itself. Your nervous system cannot function without neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters include acetylcholine, serotonin, glutamate, gamma amino butyric acid, and dopamine. All of these chemicals regulate different functions in different areas of the brain. When the correct amount of these chemicals is produced by your brain, homeostasis is sustained. If too little or too much of a neurotransmitter is produced, then the areas of your brain, targeted by that chemical, will be more or less active than normal. The brain is supposed to work together so when one part is acting abnormally, then it can change the way you move, behave, and think. So, these abnormal amounts of dopamine cause illnesses such as Parkinson’s disease and schizophrenia. Parkinson’s is caused by areas of the brain having low amounts of dopamine. People diagnosed with this disease have trouble controlling how they move and maintaining their balance. Schizophrenia is the exact opposite of this disease. Schizophrenia is when certain areas of the brain have too much dopamine. This can cause hallucinations, irrational behavior, and unreasonable speech. Both diseases can be maintained with specific types of medications, such as L-dopa (Nowicki, 2008).
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Researchers have for the first time found that this neurotransmitter, dopamine, is central to the human brain network governing motivation and a sense of reward and pleasure—and that it changes with age (Powledge, 2008).
As a result of many tests, age-associated decreases in the dopamine activity of the brain are correlated with a decline in motor function and may also contribute to impaired performance on tasks that involve frontal brain regions (Volkow, 1998).
These tasks include memory and attention. Activities that enhance dopamine activity or drugs such as L-dopa, may improve performance and quality of life for the elderly. The fact of the matter is that dopamine activity in your brain is in fact affected by age especially in the frontal lobe of the brain.
As a result of this research, it is now unambiguous that dopamine does in fact change with age. Furthermore, too little or too much dopamine can cause diseases and potentially harm your body. Therefore maintaining homeostasis is essential to remaining disease free and retaining healthy chemistry of your brain.
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