Neuron interpretation! Uncover the key role dopamine and serotonin play in regulating human perception and decision-making skills!

October 23, 2020 // -- A recent article published in the international magazine Neuron entitled "Sub-second Dopamine and Serotonin Signaling in Human Striatum when Perceptual Decision-Making" In the study, scientists from institutions such as University College London documented real-time changes in dopamine-good serotonin levels in the human brain involved in perception and decision-making, which are essential for the body's motor disorders and mental disorders, including substance abuse and depression.
researcher Professor Kenneth T. Kishida said the research provided a new perspective and window into the human brain, and that our current understanding of the workings of neuromedicals comes from preclinical animal models, not direct evidence from humans.
clear understanding of how these brain chemicals work in the body may help researchers develop new therapies to treat a variety of diseases, including Parkinson's disease, drug use disorders or depression.
In this observational study, researchers used fast-cycling voltammetry to track the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin in five patients, an electrochemical technique used to determine serotonin and dopamine levels for use in patients, and dopamine and serotonin, important chemical messenger molecules used by the body's nervous system to regulate multiple functions.
researchers said that of the five patients, two with Parkinson's disease and three with idiopathic tremors, the researchers plan to treat their condition with deep brain stimulation, and after a joint study, the researchers were able to insert carbon fiber microelectrotes deep into the patient's brain to detect and record neuron cells during a standard surgical mapping process. The release of serotonin and dopamine, idylly idyllytic tremor patients is particularly important for this study, because it is not like Parkinson's disease induced by the absence of neurons that produce dopamine, idylpathic tremor is not considered to be a disease caused by changes in dopamine or serotonin function.
Photo Source: Jynto/Wikipedia When a patient is awake in the operating room, he or she is asked to perform a decision task similar to playing a simple computer game, and when he performs a task, the researchers measure dopamine and serotonin levels in the synaphs of the brain, an important structure in the brain that controls cognition, reward and punishment, and coordinated movement.
The researchers describe the game as a series of points on a computer screen that move through the "cross-line" reference points at the center of the screen, and the patient must decide which direction the dot will move, sometimes in one direction, and at other times, it will move in a chaotic way, making the patient's decision very difficult.
Then these dots disappear, and patients must choose the direction in which they move relative to a fixed point (clockwise or counterclockwise); based on the experimental design, researchers may be able to shed light on how the human brain determines the different aspects of events it perceives.
patient repeats this sequence 200-300 times, changing the way the point is moved can change the degree of difficulty in determining what they see, and occasionally patients will have to show how confident they are with their choices.
The trials, which track patients' ability to perceive dot movement and patients' confidence in correctly identifying their movement direction, determine the actual performance of dopamine and serotonin in their bodies, and the researchers say they are random, so predictability from one test to another is minimized.
The results of this paper show that the more ions the patient's direction is clear, the higher the level of serotonin in the body, and when its certainty increases, the serotonin levels in the body decrease; , and serotonin levels will drop, and when both reach a certain level, the participant body will make a choice, which is like dopamine similar to the accelerator pedal, while serotonin is like a brake pedal, only when both systems are put into place, the body will make the choice of behavior.
This study reveals the key role these neuromules play in the body's learning, brain plasticity, and ability to perceive the environment, and now researchers are more detailed about how the brain builds perceptions and uses them to make choices, while also helping to explain the consequences of the body's choices, in which dopamine and serotonin play a very important role.
In conclusion, the researchers say it is important that studies such as these could help scientists better understand how drugs or therapies such as serotonin reuptake inhibitors affect the body's cognition, decision-making and the occurrence of mental illnesses such as depression.
() References: Dan Bang, Kenneth T. Kishida, Terry Lohrenz, et al. Sub-second Dopamine and Serotonin Signaling in Human Striatum when Perceptual Decision-Making, Neuron (2020) doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2020.09.015 (2) Scientists report for dopamine and serotonin in humanity and the Center of Health