and interested in physiologically active chemicals,
Dale and Barger isolated acetylcholine from ergot
and demonstrated that it causes effects similar
to the stimuli from the parasympathetic nerves
that control blood pressure and sweating.
This work established acetylcholine
as a possible neurotransmitter. Debate had been raging
whether nerves communicated electrically
or chemically.
Loewi did the experiment that proved
that a chemical, later shown to be acetylcholine,
transmitted from the vagus nerve of one frog’s heart,
where it slowed the heart’s beating,
could be transferred to the heart of another frog
to slow the second heart’s beating.
Over one hundred chemical neurotransmitters
have been identified, although scientists have not
identified all neurotransmitters
nor determined their purposes.
Systems
Your noradrenaline system regulates arousal and
reward,
keeps you attentive, helps you feel the effects are worth
the effort.
What shall we say about your dopamine system?
It governs your motor system and your motivation.
Too little and you might have Parkinson’s disease;
too much and you might be schizophrenic.
Cocaine keeps dopamine in your receiving neurons longer.
What does your serotonin system not relate to?
It regulates your ability to feel pain.
It regulates your appetite, your sleep, your mood,
your temperature, your cardiovascular system,
and the secretions of your glands.
Prozac enhances the effects of natural serotonin.
Finally, your cholinergic system
regulates your memory and your ability to learn.
Do you remember what you just read?
If so, no doubt the neurotransmitter acetylcholine
has been doing something in your head.
One pill makes you larger
Some neurotransmitters are excitatory
and some are inhibitory.
All neurotransmitters are targets for the drug
industry.
Chemicals alter your body; chemicals alter your
mind.
I write this not to establish a principle
that all chemicals are the same, but to warn
that any drug you take will be mixed
into the broth of a finely seasoned stew
in which simmer exotic vegetables and meats
from plants and animals that science has not named.
Sorry. That’s a bad metaphor.
You are a vast work of fine art
which, if damaged, only the most careful conservator
would dare try to restore.
You are a finely woven magic carpet
of rare fibers, many colored, intricate of design.
No other carpet is exactly like you.
Your irregular pattern is impossible to trace,
but something in its indescribable pattern makes it fly.
You are a long and complex tale, a fable
that exists in only the story-teller’s mind,
so that to interrupt him would be to risk his forgetting
how all the loose ends are supposed to resolve.
You are actually a foreign land that has been
only poorly mapped,
whose people have strange customs and speak a strange
language,
but that has been invaded by gnats, snakes, moles,
transister radios, poisonous vehicles, and gas warfare
from the modern world. You are their representative;
you must explain to them concepts that make no sense,
and you must explain things from this odd land
that we invariably do not understand.
Some claim that any refined substance, like
sugar,
is a drug that can be both damaging and addictive.
Yet you must eat, and you may choose
to take aspirin for an ache, drink a glass of wine,
or stress your body to experience a rush of adrenalin
or an endomorphine high. These are not the same
as experimenting with mind-altering mushrooms,
but who’s to say? Who’s to judge? Whose
body are we talking about but your inner temple!
Your body is a chemistry laboratory, in which
many oddly shaped test tubes and vials overflow
with weirdly colored, pungent liquids that no one has
labeled.
Some vials have broken; smoke rises to the ceiling.
Strange equipment, burners, filters, and mixers abound,
but the laboratory manual has not been written,
and you are here to conduct an experiment
whose purpose has not been agreed to.
Common table salt is essential for life,
but eating too much can cause you great distress.
Eating too much of anything would be too much.
Even drinking too much water can kill you.
You can buy a book that tells you
what not to put up your nose,
how much salt or water you should ingest,
and why you should put it up your nose.
I will not pretend to compete
with the medicine men and global corporations,
but I know that sometimes a shock
can interrupt your negative patterns
and awaken your creativity, and that,
to add one last metaphor to this allegory,
most clocks need to be reset once in a while.
In addition to chemical neurotransmitters, ions (such as
zinc ions) and soluble gases (such as nitrogen monoxide) act as
neurotransmitters, and gap junctions allow direct electrical
communication between cells. In order to produce acetylcholine
from the vagus nerve of the first frog’s heart, Otto Loewi
electrically stimulated the nerve.
With the ergot fungi, we go full circle. Its medical uses
and hallucigenic effects were well known in the Middle Ages. It
contains both the first-known neurotransmitter and the alkaloid
ergotamine, which is used to synthesize lysergic acid, an analog
of and precursor for synthesis of lysergic acid diethylamide
(LSD).
In addition to chemical neurotransmitters, ions (such as zinc ions) and soluble gases (such as nitrogen monoxide) act as neurotransmitters, and gap junctions allow direct electrical communication between cells. In order to produce acetylcholine from the vagus nerve of the first frog’s heart, Otto Loewi electrically stimulated the nerve.
With the ergot fungi, we go full circle. Its medical uses and hallucigenic effects were well known in the Middle Ages. It contains both the first-known neurotransmitter and the alkaloid ergotamine, which is used to synthesize lysergic acid, an analog of and precursor for synthesis of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).
See also in The book of science:
Readings on wikipedia: