library.SCOTCH: The Brain: Biological Influences: Neural Transmission

How Neurotransmission Works

The ProfessorTed. (2011). The brain lesson 2 how neurotransmission works [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/p5zFgT4aofA

Bergland, C. 2012. The neurochemicals of happiness. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201211/the-neurochemicals-happiness
Life in the human body is designed to be a blissful experience. Our evolutionary biology insures that everything necessary for our survival makes us feel good. All animals seek pleasure and avoid pain. Therefore, our brain has a wellspring of self-produced neurochemicals that turn the pursuits and struggles of life into pleasure and make us feel happy when we achieve them. This biological design is generous, but lays dormant in many.
Biological Psychology. (n.d.). Dopamine neurotransmitter. Retrieved from http://www.psychologistworld.com/biological/neurotransmitters/dopamine.php
Dopamine is commonly associated with the 'pleasure system' of the brain, providing feelings of enjoyment and reinforcement to motivate us to do, or continue doing, certain activities.

dopamine noun - Biochemistry. a catecholamine neurotransmitter in the central nervous system, retina, and sympathetic ganglia, acting within the brain to help regulate movement and emotion: its depletion may cause Parkinson's disease.
endorphin noun - any of a group of peptides occurring in the brain and other tissues of vertebrates, and resembling opiates, that react with the brain's opiate receptors to raise the pain threshold.
GABA noun - Biochemistry a neurotransmitter of the central nervous system that inhibits excitatory responses.
norepinephrine noun - also called noradrenaline. Physiology. a neurotransmitter, released by adrenergic nerve terminals in the autonomic and possibly the central nervous system, that has such effects as constricting blood vessels, raising blood pressure, and dilating bronchi.
opioid noun - Biochemistry any of a group of natural substances, as the endorphins, produced by the body in increased amounts in response to stress and pain.
serotonin noun - Biochemistry a neurotransmitter, derived from tryptophan, that is involved in sleep, depression, memory, and other neurological processes.