Chapter 3. Pleasure and the Brain
When each minute brain component has been located, its function identified, and its interaction
with each other component made clear - the resulting description will contain all there is to
know about human nature and experience.
– R. Carter, 1998
Your brain creates your world. It is the hardware of your soul. It is the very essence of you as a
human being. It is the brain, which distinguishes us as humans, not skin color, body structure or
facial characteristics.
Daniel Amens
Neurochemistry 101
The brain is the most complex entity in the universe!
Neurons are separated by a • The brain can be considered an – Axon – a long fiber attached
gap known as the synapse electrochemical computer, as to the soma, whose
well as a chemical factory function is to help transmit
or synapse junction. The comprised of over 100 billion messages – the message
message is carried from neurons must travel through on its
• Neurons are made up of 3 main way to the next neuron
one neuron to the next by
parts – • Myelin sheath – an
molecules known as – Nucleus of cell body insulating cover that
neurotransmitters. (Soma) – the mini-brain some axons have to
that decides whether or help increase the
Chemical changes in these not to transmit speed of
neuronal spaces determine messages by means of transmission
electrochemical – Dendrites –branches on the
how we respond to each
impulses from one receiving cell: function is to
"message" This nerve cell to the next, receive messages, each
communication process that is to fire or not to neuron has ~10,000
fire dendrites
between neurons, known
as neurotransmission, is largely responsible for the brain functions that determine what we are as
individuals, including our personalities, intellect, and character.
"The astonishing hypothesis is that you, your joys, and your sorrows, your
memories and ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in
fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their
associated molecules. As Lewis Carroll's Alice might have phrased it: 'You're
nothing but a pack of neurons."
- Francis Crick (1995)
1
, Norepinephrine (NE) is found in the
part of the brain known as the locus
coeruleus. One of NE's primary
functions is to produce arousal and
Excitability, Including the fight or
flight phenomenon associated with
the release of adrenaline. The rice in
NE levels in terms of danger or stress
results in an increase in adrenaline
Chemical messages flow from
the axon on the top presynaptic
neuron across the synapse to the
dendrite of the postsynaptic neuron on
the bottom and then onto the soma of
the postsynaptic neuron. As the
impulse reaches the presynaptic
terminal, specific channels open in this neuron's
membrane, allowing doubly charged calcium
atoms (ions) to enter the cell.
2
When each minute brain component has been located, its function identified, and its interaction
with each other component made clear - the resulting description will contain all there is to
know about human nature and experience.
– R. Carter, 1998
Your brain creates your world. It is the hardware of your soul. It is the very essence of you as a
human being. It is the brain, which distinguishes us as humans, not skin color, body structure or
facial characteristics.
Daniel Amens
Neurochemistry 101
The brain is the most complex entity in the universe!
Neurons are separated by a • The brain can be considered an – Axon – a long fiber attached
gap known as the synapse electrochemical computer, as to the soma, whose
well as a chemical factory function is to help transmit
or synapse junction. The comprised of over 100 billion messages – the message
message is carried from neurons must travel through on its
• Neurons are made up of 3 main way to the next neuron
one neuron to the next by
parts – • Myelin sheath – an
molecules known as – Nucleus of cell body insulating cover that
neurotransmitters. (Soma) – the mini-brain some axons have to
that decides whether or help increase the
Chemical changes in these not to transmit speed of
neuronal spaces determine messages by means of transmission
electrochemical – Dendrites –branches on the
how we respond to each
impulses from one receiving cell: function is to
"message" This nerve cell to the next, receive messages, each
communication process that is to fire or not to neuron has ~10,000
fire dendrites
between neurons, known
as neurotransmission, is largely responsible for the brain functions that determine what we are as
individuals, including our personalities, intellect, and character.
"The astonishing hypothesis is that you, your joys, and your sorrows, your
memories and ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in
fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their
associated molecules. As Lewis Carroll's Alice might have phrased it: 'You're
nothing but a pack of neurons."
- Francis Crick (1995)
1
, Norepinephrine (NE) is found in the
part of the brain known as the locus
coeruleus. One of NE's primary
functions is to produce arousal and
Excitability, Including the fight or
flight phenomenon associated with
the release of adrenaline. The rice in
NE levels in terms of danger or stress
results in an increase in adrenaline
Chemical messages flow from
the axon on the top presynaptic
neuron across the synapse to the
dendrite of the postsynaptic neuron on
the bottom and then onto the soma of
the postsynaptic neuron. As the
impulse reaches the presynaptic
terminal, specific channels open in this neuron's
membrane, allowing doubly charged calcium
atoms (ions) to enter the cell.
2
