Sleep and Arousal
KEY CONCEPTS Print Section Listen Both sleep and arousal are active processes mediated by specific brain regions and neurotransmitter systems. Sleep can be divided into two phases, nonrapid eye movement…
NEUROLOGY
Mood and Emotion
KEY CONCEPTS Print Section Listen Emotions activate physiologic, cognitive, and behavioral outputs that facilitate adaptive responses to salient external and internal stimuli. A crucial emotion, important in several mental disorders,…
Autonomic Nervous System
KEY CONCEPTS Print Section Listen The autonomic nervous system plays a central role in maintaining homeostasis and regulates almost every organ system in the body. The major functional divisions are…
Widely Projecting Systems: Monoamines, Acetylcholine, and Orexin
KEY CONCEPTS Print Section Listen The monoamine neurotransmitters (dopamine [DA], norepinephrine [NE], epinephrine, serotonin, and histamine), the related small molecule neurotransmitter, acetylcholine (ACh), and the neuropeptides, orexin A and B,…
Cellular Basis of Communication
KEY CONCEPTS Print Section Listen Neurons are the principal cells in the brain that process information. There is a great diversity of neuronal cell types based on morphology, chemistry, location,…
Neuroinflammation
KEY CONCEPTS Print Section Listen Immune mechanisms, both intrinsic to the brain and spinal cord and derived from the periphery, are important in fighting central nervous system infections and mediating…
Excitatory and Inhibitory Amino Acids
KEY CONCEPTS Print Section Listen The major excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain is glutamate; the major inhibitory neurotransmitter is γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Glutamate receptors comprise two large families, ligand-gated ion…
Atypical Neurotransmitters
KEY CONCEPTS Print Section Listen The common designation of a group of neurotransmitters as purines is a misnomer; what are called purinergic signaling molecules are the nucleoside and nucleotide derivatives…
Synaptic Transmission
KEY CONCEPTS Print Section Listen Synaptic transmission is a signal transduction process that begins with the action potential–dependent release of a neurotransmitter from a presynaptic terminal. The neurotransmitter then binds…
