neurochemistry of memory Flashcards
What does serotonin affect and what is undersupply linked to?
- Serotonin affects mood, hunger, sleep and arousal
- undersupply linked to depression
What does dopamine affect and what is oversupply and undersupply linked to?
- Dopamine affects movement, learning, attention, emotion, appetitive/approach systems
- oversupply is linked to schizophrenia
- undersupply = tremors/decreased motility in parkinsons and ADHD
What does acetyl choline affect and in what condition does ACh-producing neurons deteriorate?
- Ach affects muscle action, learning, memory, attention and arousal
- ACh producing neurons deteriorate as alzheimers disease progresses
What does the neurotransmitter norepinephrine affect? what does undersupply cause?
Alertness and arousal
undersupply depresses mood and causes ADHD like attention problems
What does the neurotransmitter GABA affect? what does undersupply lead to?
A major inhibitory neurotransmitter
-undersupply leads to siezures/tremor/insomnia
What the neurotransmitter Glutamate affect? what can oversupply of glutamate cause?
this is a major excitatory neurotransmitter and is involved in memory
-oversupply can overstimulate the brain
What kind of memory is the cholinergic system involved with?
Episodic memory
What 4 cholinergic projections exist?
- striatal interneurons (motor control)
- Nucleus basalis of Meynert (attention/arousal)
- medial septal nucleus (learning and memory)
- Brain stem (pedunculopontine) nuclei (to thalamus)
Is the cell more prone to excitation or inhibition with low levels of ACh?
-excitation
not enough ACh to inhibit receptors
What three different receptors that glutamate binds to?
- NMDA receptor
- Metabotropic receptor
- AMPA receptor
What is post-synaptic long term potentiation? and what neurotransmitter system does this occur in?
What receptor is key in long-term potentiation?
post-synapse is changed so that long term memory is made and don’t need the neurotransmitter to remember (as otherwise when neurotransmitter is uptaken back = forget)
-glutamate system
-NMDA receptors
(it is a process in which synapses are strengthened)
What are NMDA receptors responsible for? What type of memory do NMDA receptors maintain?
- responsible for synaptic plasticity
- NMDA is how longer term memory is maintained
What are metabotropic receptors responsible for? are they fast or slow responders?
-slow responders - open gate for several secs
- regulate activity in cell and membrane
(more to upkeep the cell membrane)
What is the AMPA receptor key for? is it fixed in the cell membrane? is a slow or fast responder?
- Key in long term memory
- it is not fixed in the membrane
- it is key for long term memory
What happens when there is high levels of GSK-3 within the GSK-3 system? (glycogen-synthase kinase 3)
when have high levels of GSK-3 everything gets phopshoylated preventing axonal growth and neurotransmitter release = less neural plasticity
