Word: striatum
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Dates: during 1997-1997
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...also not surprising that serotonin deficits can give rise to very different illnesses, depending on what part of the brain is affected. Obsessive-compulsive disorder, for example, probably arises in the striatum, a part of the brain that controls voluntary movements. Princeton's Jacobs believes that, based on experiments with cats, repetitive motor activity--walking, chewing, breathing--stimulates the release of serotonin, which improves mood. That might explain why people are soothed by gum chewing and why obsessive-compulsives perform such ritualistic acts as hand washing over and over; they may simply be self-medicating to overcome a serotonin deficit...
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