Psychology Term Paper

Dopamine

The way we behave and respond in our environment is due to the tiny chemicals in our nervous system called neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters play an important role in our everyday life such as: walking, talking, and thinking. Too much or too little neurotransmitters can have disastrous effects; this is why neurotransmitters appear in insignificant amounts in our bodies, according to Hockenbury, the author of the Brookdale Into to Psychology textbook. ( 51). One of the most recognizable neurotransmitter is dopamine; it affects our movement, attention, ability to learn, and induces feelings pleasure and rewarding sensations. Dopamine is related to multiple disorders such as Parkinson’s, Schizophrenia, and is also tied to drug addiction. Sandra Galeotti and Rosalyn Carson-De Witt, contributing authors of the Gale Encyclopedia of Neurological Disorders states that the purpose of dopamine is to: stimulate the heart, spleen, and other digestive organs, and it controls muscle movement and motor coordination. Dopamine is an important neurotransmitter that affects us in our everyday lives. We wouldn’t be able to function properly without dopamine.

Drugs can affect the brain by entering the brain’s communication system and disrupt the information processes of neurons. Drugs cause disruption by imitating the neurotransmitters made in the brain and overstimulation of reward centers, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIH). Since drugs like marijuana and heroin have similar structures to neurotransmitters in the brain, these drugs can cause disruption to neural messages between nerve cells. Drugs such as cocaine and meth can cause nerve cells to produce excess amounts of neurotransmitters like dopamine or prevent...

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...pa. Galelotti states “ when administered with carbidopa, levodopa’s ( L-dopa) effects are enhanced because carbidopa increases L-dopa transport to the brain and decreases its gastrointestinal metabolism.

Schizophrenia is a neurological disorder that affects the way a person behaves and it is tied to dopamine dysfunction several parts of the brain. There are three categories of symptoms that appear in schizophrenic individuals: positive, negative, and cognitive. Individuals with Schizophrenia tend to have these symptoms such as: hallucinations, delusions, movement disorders, thought disorders, and other types of disorders that have a negative impact on cognitive functions. According to Willingham and Key, the dopamine hypothesis suggests that the symptoms of schizophrenia affect different dopamine pathways and are related to the dysfunction of dopamine signals.