Brain/Stomach/Reproductive plushies from IHeartGuts

<3 your brain/mind, your tum tum and your body parts that give us so much.

Big Brain Plush - Brain Power!

Super Stomach Plush - I Ache For You

Immense Intestine + Appendix Plush - Go With Your Gut!

Oversized Ovary Plush - Ova Achiever!

Huge Uterus Plush - Womb Service!

Mammary Plush - Gland of Milk & Honey!

Tremendous Testicle Plush - Having a Ball

Prostate Plush - A Seminal Work!

Check out DanceSafe for harm reduction!

"About DanceSafe
DanceSafe is a 501(c)(3) public health organization promoting health and safety within the nightlife and electronic music community. Founded in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1998 by Emanuel Sferios, DanceSafe quickly grew into a national organization with chapters in cities across North America.

Our Principles

DanceSafe has two fundamental operating principles: harm reduction and peer-based, popular education. Combining these two principles has enabled us to create successful, peer-based educational programs to reduce drug misuse and empower young people to make healthy, informed lifestyle choices. We are known for bringing adulterant screening (a.k.a., “pill testing,” “drug checking”) to the rave and nightlife community in the U.S., and for distributing unbiased educational literature describing the effects and risks associated with the use of various drugs. We also started the only publicly accessible laboratory analysis program for ecstasy in North America, currently hosted and managed by Erowid at EcstasyData.org. We neither condone nor condemn drug use. Rather, we provide a non-judgmental perspective to help support people who use drugs in making informed decisions about their health and safety.

Our Initiatives and Services

• Provide safe spaces to engage in conversations about health, drug use, and personal safety;
• Provide free water and electrolytes to prevent dehydration and heatstroke;
• Provide free safe sex tools to avoid unwanted pregnancies and the spread of STIs;
• Provide free ear plugs to prevent hearing loss;
• Provide honest, fact-based, unbiased information on drug effects and potential harms to empower users to make informed decisions;
• Offer a nonjudgmental first-point of contact to risky or challenging situations;
• Offer drug checking services to prevent overdose and death; and
• Work with promoters and local stakeholders to advocate for safety first approaches.

Note: Our information and services are directed primarily towards non-addicted, recreational drug users. Non-addicted drug users are an under-served population within the harm reduction movement, despite the fact that they comprise the vast majority of drug users in our society. While many organizations exist that provide services to drug-dependent individuals, few groups address the needs of the majority of non-addicted, recreational users. We hope to fill this gap. When needed, we will always refer people to appropriate treatment programs."


Check out DanceSafe for harm reduction!

Watch the From Neurons to Nirvana: The Great Medicines documentary

"Neurons to Nirvana is a 2013 documentary film by Canadian filmmaker Oliver Hockenhull. The film examines the evidence for the therapeutic benefits of psychedelic drugs. The production company crowdfunded marketing and distribution through a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised more than $35,000. Two versions of the film were released, a director's cut and an educational edition. The director's cut premiered at the Vancouver Film Festival in 2013.

The film features interviews with Gabor Maté, Dennis McKenna, Rick Doblin, Charles Grob, Jeremy Narby, Stanislav Grof, David Nutt, Julie Holland, David Healy, Michael Mithoefer, David Nichols, Amanda Feilding, Stephen Ross, Ralph Metzner, Gillian Maxwell, Manuel Schoch, Michael Winkelman, William Richards, Kathleen Harrison, Roland Griffiths, Wade Davis, Ingrid Pacey, and Chris Bennett.

The film also features scenes from Ben Ridgway's experimental animated film"Continuum Infinitum"

More Info...

1. IMDB
2. Watch (don't download anything as it is a virus and make sure your ad blocker is on and make sure you have virus protection)
3. buy @ Amazon

Neurons To Nirvana: Understanding Psychedelic Medicines - Official Trailer from MANGU.TV on Vimeo.

Take the Medicinal Chemistry: The Molecular Basis of Drug Discovery free course

Great to learn the chemical makeup and how to read it. I took this class to learn more about things like how DMT, and other drugs react in the body.  It's free and it's just PDFs of things.No pressure.

"*Note - This is an Archived course*

This is a past/archived course. At this time, you can only explore this course in a self-paced fashion. Certain features of this course may not be active, but many people enjoy watching the videos and working with the materials. Make sure to check for reruns of this course.

This course explores how to bring a drug from concept to market, and how a drug's chemical structure relates to its biological function. The course opens with an introduction to the drug approval process. This introduction combines the social, economic, and ethical aspects of drug discovery. Topics include how diseases are selected for treatment, the role of animal testing, and the costs of various discovery phases. The course then focuses on the scientific side of drug discovery. Topics include how drugs interact with biological molecules, drug absorption and elimination, and the discovery of weakly active molecules and their optimization into viable drugs."

Take the Medicinal Chemistry: The Molecular Basis of Drug Discovery free course

Meet Your Happy Chemicals: Dopamine, Endorphin, Oxytocin, Serotonin by Loretta Breuning

"You can enjoy more happy chemicals if you know what turns them on. In the state of nature, happy chemicals turn on to meet survival needs. Whatever met your needs in youth triggered happy chemicals and paved your neural pathways. You are wired to seek more of whatever felt good before. You can re-wire yourself by repeating a new behavior for 45 days. This book helps you choose healthy ways to stimulate dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and endorphin. Dopamine is the good feeling you get when you approach a reward.

Serotonin is the good feeling of getting respect. Oxytocin is the feeling of trust, and endorphin is the euphoria that masks physical pain. These happy chemicals were not meant to surge all the time. They fall back to neutral so you’re ready to respond to new information. You can accept your natural droops instead of rushing to fix them. You have power when you know how your brain works, and it feels good."
More Info...

1. Buy
2. PDF

Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR)

"ASMR is a tricky feeling to describe, and I can only talk about it secondhand. From what I understand from conversations with ASMRers, it’s a tingle in your brain, a kind of pleasurable headache that can creep down your spine. It’s a shortcut to a blissed-out meditative state that allows you to watch long videos that for someone who doesn’t have ASMR are mind-meltingly dull. Not everyone gets this feeling, and though some people can get the tingles through sheer force of will, most depend on external “triggers” to set them off. Triggers can include getting a massage or a haircut or a manicure, or hearing someone talk in a soothing tone of voice (Bob Ross, the “let’s put a happy tree right here” painter from PBS, is a common trigger), or even just watching someone pay extremely close attention to a task, like assembling a model. It’s not usually sexual—everyone who talked to me about ASMR mentioned that right off the bat—but like sexual turn-ons, different people have different things that set them off: the sound of lips smacking together, a cashier’s fake nails tapping on the register, your friend drawing on your hand with a marker."

See more about ASMR at Vice's website

More Info...

1. Wikipedia Article about ASMR
2. ASMR Triggers – Common ASMR triggers that cause tingles

Diaphragma Sellae

"The diaphragma sellae or sellar diaphragm is the circular fold of dura mater that almost completely roofs the fossa hypophyseos of the sella turcica of the sphenoid bone within the skull. It retains the pituitary gland in the fossa hypophyseos, with only the infundibulum of the pituitary gland passing through it. The sensory innervation of the diaphragma sellae is by the first division of the trigeminal nerve."

See more...
@Wikipedia

Molecule Jewelry

"One of the most extraordinary sterling silver jewelry I’ve ever saw. Unbelievable how much the language of science can show to us with its symbols. An abundance of symbols will help you to find a gift for everyone. You can make a gift to your beloved with standard symbol of love – heart, but it is so ordinarily. Do you know what it feels like to have a lot of the neurotransmitter dopamine actually you feel it when you in love. You can gift to your favorite symbol of love made in form of molecule of dopamine....

Probably you will be interested by a modern symbol of happiness – Serotonin? You should know that all our variations of moods are controlled by just a handful of chemicals. All pieces of this collection are made of sterling silver."

chocolate - theobromine molecule - earrings

Credit

More Info..

1. Official Site
2. Store

Melatonin

*Note: I take a very small time released capsule of Melatonin once at night. It works amazing! Don't take too much, or a melatonin overdose can happen.

What is melatonin?

Melatonin is a hormone made by the pineal gland,a small gland in the brain. Melatonin helps control your sleep and wake cycles. Very small amounts of it are found in foods such as meats, grains, fruits, and vegetables. You can also buy it as a supplement.

What does natural melatonin do in the body?

Your body has its own internal clock that controls your natural cycle of sleeping and waking hours. In part, your body clock controls how much melatonin your body makes. Normally, melatonin levels begin to rise in the mid- to late evening, remain high for most of the night, and then drop in the early morning hours.

Light affects how much melatonin your body produces. During the shorter days of the winter months, your body may produce melatonin either earlier or later in the day than usual. This change can lead to symptoms of seasonal affective disorder (SAD), or winter depression.

Natural melatonin levels slowly drop with age. Some older adults make very small amounts of it or none at all.

Why is melatonin used as a dietary supplement?

Melatonin supplements are sometimes used to treat jet lag or sleep problems (insomnia). Scientists are also looking at other good uses for melatonin, such as:

Treating seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
Helping to control sleep patterns for people who work night shifts.
Preventing or reducing problems with sleeping and confusion after surgery.
Reducing chronic cluster headaches.
Is taking a melatonin dietary supplement safe?

In most cases, melatonin supplements are safe in low doses for short-term and long-term use. But be sure to talk with your doctor about taking them.

Children and pregnant or nursing women should not take melatonin without talking to a doctor first.

Melatonin does have side effects. But they will go away when you stop taking the supplement. Side effects may include:

• Sleepiness.
• Lower body temperature.
• Vivid dreams.
• Morning grogginess.
• Small changes in blood pressure.
• If melatonin makes you feel drowsy, do not drive or operate machinery when you are taking it.

During health exams, tell your doctor if you are taking melatonin. And tell your doctor if you are having trouble sleeping (insomnia), because it may be related to a medical problem.

In adults, melatonin is taken in doses from 0.2 mg to 20.0 mg, based on the reason for its use. The right dose varies widely from one person to another. Talk to your doctor to learn the right dosage and to find out if melatonin is right for you.

Where can you find a melatonin supplement?

You can buy melatonin supplements without a prescription at health food stores, drugstores, and online. Melatonin should only be taken in its man-made form. The form that comes from ground-up cow pineal glands is rarely used, because it may spread disease.

Credit

More Info...

1. Too much Melatonin Dr Oz

Acetylcholine

"Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter, a chemical that carries messages between brain cells. Most dreams occur during rapid eye movement, or REM, sleep, when acetylcholine levels are high, as they also are during alert wakefulness. By observing the effects of deficiencies, scientists know that acetylcholine is essential to sleep, dreaming, learning and memory, although the precise nature of the connection is unclear. A healthy diet gives you all you need, but increasing your intake of foods rich in lecithin and B vitamins might help encourage more vivid dreams.

Stages of Sleep
A healthy sleep cycle progresses in five stages, each with distinctive brain wave patterns. The duration of each phase varies with age but on average, one entire cycle lasts about 90 minutes. Stage one is the groggy phase just before you fall asleep. During stage two, an EEG will show sudden spikes in electrical activity as your brain tries to disengage from the waking state and descend deeper into sleep. Stages three and four are restful, when brain waves are slow, strong and synchronized. Most dreaming takes place during the REM, stage, when blood flow to the brain increases, electrical activity parallels a state of high alertness, and the eyes move as though scanning a scene."

Credit

More Info...

1. Neurotransmitters and Sleep 
2. Dream Catchers
3. Dream Views

The Moral Molecule by Paul Zak

"A Revolution in the Science of Good and Evil

Why do some people give freely while others are cold hearted?

Why do some people cheat and steal while others you can trust with your life?

Why are some husbands more faithful than others—and why do women tend to be more generous than men?

Could they key to moral behavior lie with a single molecule?

From the bucolic English countryside to the highlands of Papua New Guinea, from labs in Switzerland to his campus in Souther California, Dr. Paul Zak recounts his extraordinary stories and sets out, for the first time, his revolutionary theory of moral behavior.  Accessible and electrifying, The Moral Molecule reveals nothing less than the origins of our most human qualities—empathy, happiness, and the kindness of strangers. "

More Info...
Buy Book
PDF:N/A

Under The Microscope:Oxytocin

*Click pic to enlarge

The science of love

"We call it love. It feels like love. But the most exhilarating of all human emotions is probably nature’s beautiful way of keeping the human species alive and reproducing.

With an irresistible cocktail of chemicals, our brain entices us to fall in love. We believe we’re choosing a partner. But we may merely be the happy victims of nature’s lovely plan.


It’s not what you say...
Psychologists have shown it takes between 90 seconds and 4 minutes to decide if you fancy someone.
Research has shown this has little to do with what is said, rather
55% is through body language
38% is the tone and speed of their voice
Only 7% is through what they say



The 3 stages of love
Helen Fisher of Rutgers University in the States has proposed 3 stages of love – lust, attraction and attachment. Each stage might be driven by different hormones and chemicals."

1.Lust
2.Adrenaline
3.Attachment

Dopamine

"Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain's reward and pleasure centers. Dopamine also helps regulate movement and emotional responses, and it enables us not only to see rewards, but to take action to move toward them. Dopamine deficiency results in Parkinson's Disease, and people with low dopamine activity may be more prone to addiction. The presence of a certain kind of dopamine receptor is also associated with sensation-seeking. "

Credit

"It's what we call a monoamine, which basically means it has one amine group (the bit with the blue ball on it, the blue ball is Nitrogen) as part of its structure. There are several monoamines in the brain, including dopamine itself, norepinephrine, and epinephrine. Your brain makes dopamine all the time, out of tyrosine molecules, which are one of the 20 major amino acids that you have that make up all the different proteins and things in your body. Knowing exactly how dopamine is made is actually pretty important, scientists tweak the dopamine pathway all the time to run experiments or treat disease symptoms.....

Basically, tyrosine (your starting molecule) is transformed into another chemical called L-DOPA by an enzyme known as tyrosine hydroxylase. Tyrosine hydroxylase is the rate limiting step (basically, the slowest one) in the formation of dopamine, and so scientists often manipulate levels of tyrosine hydroxylase in animals to look at the effects on dopamine levels in the brain. You can also look at levels of tyrosine hydroxylase to see how much dopamine there is likely to be at any given time.....

Dopamine also acts as a hormone which has its main effects in the hypothalamus. Here, release of dopamine inhibits the secretion of prolactin. Prolactin is a hormone which helps regulate orgasm and the release of milk during breast feeding. I don't tend to blog about this stuff so much, though the dopaminergic regulation of the refractory period after orgasm is pretty cool....

Dopamine receptors

There are five dopamine receptors, and luckily they all act in one of two ways! Unluckily, that does not make them at all less complicated.

DA D1 and DA D5: These are known as "stimulatory receptors", meaning they stimulate the cell that they are on when they get activated by dopamine. Now, if that cell is ALSO stimulatory to further cells down the line, the net effect is stimulation, but if the cell is inhibitory to other cells down the line, the net effect can be inhibition.

DA D2, D3, and D4: These are known as "inhibitory" receptors. But remember the main effect is not always inhibitory, unless they are inhibiting a stimulatory cell. They can also inhibit an inhibitory cell, which can stop inhibition of other cells down the like and result in stimulation! Does your head hurt yet?"

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@Cedarlane

Inactivation of Neurotransmitters

"The action of neurotransmitters can be stopped by four different mechanisms:

1. Diffusion: the neurotransmitter drifts away, out of the synaptic cleft where it can no longer act on a receptor. 

Diffusion
2. Enzymatic degradation (deactivation): a specific enzyme changes the structure of the neurotransmitter so it is not recognized by the receptor. For example, acetylcholinesterase is the enzyme that breaks acetylcholine into choline and acetate.    

Enzymatic degradation
3. Glial cells: astrocytes remove neurotransmitters from the synaptic cleft.    

Astrocyte
4. Reuptake: the whole neurotransmitter molecule is taken back into the axon terminal that released it. This is a common way the action of norepinephrine, dopamine and serotonin is stopped...these neurotransmitters are removed from the synaptic cleft so they cannot bind to receptors."

Credit:

What are Neurotransmitters

"Communication of information between neurons is accomplished by movement of chemicals across a small gap called the synapse. Chemicals, called neurotransmitters, are released from one neuron at the presynaptic nerve terminal. Neurotransmitters then cross the synapse where they may be accepted by the next neuron at a specialized site called a receptor. The action that follows activation of a receptor site may be either depolarization (an excitatory postsynaptic potential) or hyperpolarization (an inhibitory postsynaptic potential). A depolarization makes it MORE likely that an action potential will fire; a hyperpolarization makes it LESS likely that an action potential will fire.....


Neurotransmitter Criteria

Neuroscientists have set up a few guidelines or criteria to prove that a chemical is really a neurotransmitter. Not all of the neurotransmitters that you have heard about may actually meet every one of these criteria.

• The chemical must be produced within a neuron.
• The chemical must be found within a neuron.
• When a neuron is stimulated (depolarized), a neuron must release the chemical.
• When a chemical is released, it must act on a post-synaptic receptor and cause a biological effect.
• After a chemical is released, it must be inactivated. Inactivation can be through a reuptake mechanism or by an enzyme that stops the action of the chemical.

Neurotransmitters will bind only to specific receptors on the postsynaptic membrane that recognize them.."

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Synesthesia

"What is synesthesia?
Synesthesia is a condition in which one sense (for example, hearing) is simultaneously perceived as if by one or more additional senses such as sight. Another form of synesthesia joins objects such as letters, shapes, numbers or people's names with a sensory perception such as smell, color or flavor. The word synesthesia comes from two Greek words, syn (together) and aisthesis (perception). Therefore, synesthesia literally means "joined perception."
Synesthesia can involve any of the senses. The most common form, colored letters and numbers, occurs when someone always sees a certain color in response to a certain letter of the alphabet or number. For example, a synesthete (a person with synesthesia) might see the word "plane" as mint green or the number "4" as dark brown. There are also synesthetes who hear sounds in response to smell, who smell in response to touch, or who feel something in response to sight. Just about any combination of the senses is possible. There are some people who possess synesthesia involving three or even more senses, but this is extremely rare.
Synesthetic perceptions are specific to each person. Different people with synesthesia almost always disagree on their perceptions. In other words, if one synesthete thinks that the letter "q" is colored blue, another synesthete might see "q" as orange.

Diagnosis

Although there is no officially established method of diagnosing synesthesia, some guidelines have been developed by Richard Cytowic, MD, a leading synesthesia researcher. Not everyone agrees on these standards, but they provide a starting point for diagnosis. According to Cytowic, synesthetic perceptions are:

Involuntary: synesthetes do not actively think about their perceptions; they just happen.

Projected: rather than experiencing something in the "mind's eye," as might happen when you are asked to imagine a color, a synesthete often actually sees a color projected outside of the body.

Durable and generic: the perception must be the same every time; for example, if you taste chocolate when you hear Beethoven's Violin Concerto, you must always taste chocolate when you hear it; also, the perception must be generic -- that is, you may see colors or lines or shapes in response to a certain smell, but you would not see something complex such as a room with people and furniture and pictures on the wall.

Memorable: often, the secondary synesthetic perception is remembered better than the primary perception; for example, a synesthete who always associates the color purple with the name "Laura" will often remember that a woman's name is purple rather than actually remembering "Laura."

Emotional: the perceptions may cause emotional reactions such as pleasurable feelings.

Who has it?

Estimates for the number of people with synesthesia range from 1 in 200 to 1 in 100,000. There are probably many people who have the condition but do not realize what it is.
Synesthetes tend to be:

Women: in the U.S., studies show that three times as many women as men have synesthesia; in the U.K., eight times as many women have been reported to have it. The reason for this difference is not known.

Left-handed: synesthetes are more likely to be left-handed than the general population.

Neurologically normal: synesthetes are of normal (or possibly above average) intelligence, and standard neurological exams are normal.

In the same family: synesthesia appears to be inherited in some fashion; it seems to be a dominant trait and it may be on the X-chromosome.

Famous People

Some celebrated people who may have had synesthesia include:

Vasily Kandinsky (painter, 1866-1944)

Olivier Messiaen (composer, 1908-1992)

Charles Baudelaire (poet, 1821-1867)

Franz Liszt (composer, 1811-1886)

Arthur Rimbaud (poet, 1854-1891)

Richard Phillips Feynman (physicist, 1918-1988)

It is possible that some of these people merely expressed synesthetic ideas in their arts, although some of them undoubtedly did have synesthesia.

The Biological Basis of Synesthesia

Some scientists believe that synesthesia results from "crossed-wiring" in the brain. They hypothesize that in synesthetes, neurons and synapses that are "supposed" to be contained within one sensory system cross to another sensory system. It is unclear why this might happen but some researchers believe that these crossed connections are present in everyone at birth, and only later are the connections refined. In some studies, infants respond to sensory stimuli in a way that researchers think may involve synesthetic perceptions. It is hypothesized by these researchers that many children have crossed connections and later lose them. Adult synesthetes may have simply retained these crossed connections.
It is unclear which parts of the brain are involved in synesthesia. Richard Cytowic's research has led him to believe that the limbic system is primarily responsible for synesthetic experiences. The limbic system includes several brain structures primarily responsible for regulating our emotional responses. Other research, however, has shown significant activity in the cerebral cortex during synesthetic experiences. In fact, studies have shown a particularly interesting effect in the cortex: colored-hearing synesthetes have been shown to display activity in several areas of the visual cortex when they hear certain words. In particular, areas of the visual cortex associated with processing color are activated when the synesthetes hear words. Non-synesthetes do not show activity in these areas, even when asked to imagine colors or to associate certain colors with certain words.

Synesthesia and the Study of Consciousness

Many researchers are interested in synesthesia because it may reveal something about human consciousness. One of the biggest mysteries in the study of consciousness is what is called the "binding problem." No one knows how we bind all of our perceptions together into one complete whole. For example, when you hold a flower, you see the colors, you see its shape, you smell its scent, and you feel its texture. Your brain manages to bind all of these perceptions together into one concept of a flower. Synesthetes might have additional perceptions that add to their concept of a flower. Studying these perceptions may someday help us understand how we perceive our world.

Synesthesia Experiment

1. Read a list of random numbers between 0 and 9 at a rate of about one every 3 seconds. For example: 7, 9, 4, 0, 3, 8, 2, 5, 1, 6.
2. After each number is read, ask people to write down the number and what COLOR that they associate with each number.
3. Collect the answers. These will be called "Answers #1".
4. Two to three weeks later, repeat the experiment, but change the order of the numbers. For example: 3, 6, 5, 9, 4, 1, 7, 0, 5, 2, 8.
5. Collect the answers. These will be called "Answers #2".
6. Compare Answers #1 with Answers #2. A person with synesthesia will have all or most of the same number-color pairs on both Answers #1 and Answers #2. This experiment can also be done using letters instead of numbers."

Read more...

More info..
Rare but Real: People Who Feel, Taste and Hear Color
Synesthetic Experience

Brain from top to bottom - Neurotransmitters

SYNAPSES Thanks to research by hundreds of laboratories throughout the world, the main entities involved in synaptic transmission have now been identified. They include over sixty neurotransmitters and hundreds of subtypes of receptors. Since a single neuron may release several different neurotransmitters at once, the soup of molecules and ions in the synaptic gap can be decoded only by means of very specific affinities between neurotransmitters and their receptors. A combination of neurotransmitters that can act on various subtypes of receptors can thus have varying effects, depending on what particular receptors they are acting upon. This diagram shows a synapse that is capable of long-term potentiation, a synaptic facilitation mechanism that is the basis for memory. The neurotransmitter involved here is glutamate. The enlarged diagram shows just three of the approximately twenty known subtypes of glutamate receptors. When glutamate binds to these receptors, it not only causes the ion channels to open but also triggers several cascades of chemical reactions, also represented in this diagram. Many of these reactions involve “second messengers:” molecules that relay signals from neurotransmitters within the postsynaptic neuron and that can in turn cause other ion channels to open or close. The effects of second messengers can extend all the way to the neuron’s nucleus, thus influencing its synthesis of new proteins, receptors, or channels, for example. Ion channels too are large proteins embedded in the neuronal membrane. It is the selective opening of all these various channels that, by changing the membrane’s electrical potential, produces the action potential. It is also these channels that let calcium ions enter the presynaptic neuron when the action potential reaches the axon’s terminal button–a crucial step that leads to the fusion of the synaptic vesicles with the membrane and their expulsion of neurotransmitters into the synaptic gap. Lastly, this overview of the entities involved in neurotransmission would not be complete without a mention of the other transmembrane proteins that reabsorb neurotransmitters into the presynaptic neuron or that actively pump ions through the membrane against their natural gradient.

	Many peptides act more as neuromodulators than as neurotransmitters. Neuromodulators are substances that do not propagate nerve impulses directly, but instead affect the synthesis, breakdown, or reabsorption (reuptake) of neurotransmitters. Neuromodulators can also exert regulatory effects on many extra-synaptic receptors, rather than on synaptic sites exclusively.		NEUROTRANSMITTERS To be considered a neurotransmitter, a molecule must meet several criteria. 1) It must be produced inside a neuron, found in the neuron’s terminal button, and released into the synaptic gap upon the arrival of an action potential. 2) It must produce an effect on the postsynaptic neuron. 3) After it has transmitted its signal to this neuron, it must be deactivated rapidly. 4) It must have the same effect on the postsynaptic neuron when applied experimentally as it does when secreted by a presynaptic neuron. Over 60 different molecules are currently known to meet these criteria. Among the small molecules constituting the “classical” neurotransmitters, the best known are: acetylcholine serotonin catecholamines, including epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine excitatory amino acids such as aspartate and glutamate (half of the synapses in the central nervous system are glutamatergic) inhibitory amino acids such as glycine and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA; one-quarter to one-third of the synapses in the central nervous system are GABAergic) histamine adenosine adenosine triphosphate (ATP) Peptides form another large family of neurotransmitters, with over 50 known members. Here is a very partial list: substance P, beta endorphin, enkephalin, somatostatin, vasopressin, prolactin, angiotensin II, oxytocin, gastrin, cholecystokinin, thyrotropin, neuropeptide Y, insulin, glucagon, calcitonin, neurotensin, bradykinin. Certain soluble gases also act as neurotransmitters. The most important member of this category is nitrogen monoxide (NO). These neurotransmitters act by their own distinctive mechanism: they exit the transmitting neuron’s cell membrane by simple diffusion and penetrate the receiving neuron’s membrane in the same way.

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