01:830:364 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Champagne Glass, Nosology, Drinking Buddies
23 Feb 2017
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Document Summary
Localization in the brain of emotional states. Pleasure, euphora, reward, well being, hedonistic, liking, wanting, fulfilling, positive emotional state, positive reinforcement effect, satisfying state of affairs. Acute experiences of pleasure is due to dopamine activation. Alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, amphetamine, opiates, oxycontin, and other abused drugs produce elevated activity in the dopamine pathway. Neuron- nerve cell of the brain and spinal cord (cns) Chemical messenger synthesized by and then released into the synaptic space by the presynaptic space by the presynaptic neuron to signal the postsynaptic neuron. Ex: a dopamine (da) neuron makes da by converting l-dopa into da then releases da into the synapse. Communication across the da synapse is called da neurotransmission. Mesolimbic dopamine (da) neurons have their cell bodies in the ventral tegmental area (vta) with axons projecting to the nucleus accumbens (nac) There is compelling evidence that addiction is due to activation of the ascending mesolimbic dopamine pathway.
