PSYC 211 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: 5-Ht2A Receptor, Neurotransmitter Receptor, Sublingual Administration
Document Summary
We break up neurotransmitters: signaling molecules released in the brain that act over short distances. Glutamate: the most dominant neurotransmitter in the brain. We call this neurotransmitter excitatory, because most of its receptors are excitatory. However, there are other receptors that are inhibitory, but this is a minority. Gaba: we call this neurotransmitter inhibitory for the same reason that we call glutamate excitatory. The 5-ht2a receptor is a metabotropic (g-protein coupled) serotonin receptor subtype in the 5-ht2 family of serotonin receptors. They bind the the same receptor but they have very different effects . All of these agonists cause the receptor to activate the g-protein known as (cid:494)gq/11(cid:495), which in turn activates the protein phospholipase c- . It(cid:495)s not just which protein you are activating; it is also how the protein is. However, the hallucinogenic agonists bind to the receptor in a specific way that activates an additional type of g-protein coupled receptor, (a gi/o protein).