Word: serotonin
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These responses, said Weigher, are probably caused by the release of one of two neurotransmitter substances, of the class amines, known as serotonin and octopamine...
...that point, researchers began attempting to identify all of the nerve cells which contained serotonin. When they did in fact find the 120 cells that contained serotonin, it turned out that these cells did not cause the lobsters to assume either posture...
Instead, Kravitz's team found a pair of large serotonin-containing cells, which, when stimulated, bias the system towards either stimulation or inhibition of the muscles involved in the postures...
Still, scientists are not expecting miracles, particularly in battling cocaine addiction. Unlike heroin, which acts on the pain-killing endorphin system alone, cocaine engages three separate neurotransmitter systems: those based on dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine. Taken together, these networks govern the human ability to experience pleasure, from watching a sunrise to having sex. Blocking all these pleasure centers -- as methadone blocks the heroin high -- would literally take the joy out of life, says Yale's Kosten. "We'd turn out automatons." Addicts trying to quit cocaine go through a stage called anhedonia, a sort of spiritless limbo that typically drives...
...have a close relative with a mood disorder. Also baffling is the exact role that the absence or presence of light plays in seasonal mood shifts. Among the theories: a disturbance in the body's natural clock and abnormal production of melatonin, a hormone manufactured in the brain, and serotonin, a chemical that helps transmit nerve impulses...