{"id":17702,"date":"2023-12-03T05:15:02","date_gmt":"2023-12-02T23:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=17702"},"modified":"2025-04-05T06:03:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T00:33:22","slug":"dopamine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/dopamine\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Dopamine?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>About Dopamine<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a\u00a0neurotransmitter.<\/li>\n<li>It is a chemical messenger that\u00a0helps in the transmission of signals in the brain and other vital areas.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Dopamine is found in\u00a0humans as well as animals, including both vertebrates and invertebrates.<\/li>\n<li>It plays a\u00a0role as a \u201creward center\u201d and in many\u00a0body functions, including memory, movement, motivation, mood, attention, and more.<\/li>\n<li>Dopamine is\u00a0released when your brain is expecting a reward. When you come to associate a certain activity with pleasure, mere anticipation may be enough to raise dopamine levels.<\/li>\n<li>Dysfunction of the dopamine system has been\u00a0implicated in different nervous system diseases.<\/li>\n<li>High or low dopamine levels are\u00a0associated\u00a0with diseases including Parkinson\u2019s disease, restless legs syndrome, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).<\/li>\n<li>Where is dopamine produced?\n<ul>\n<li>Neurons in the region at the base\u00a0of the brain produce dopamine in a two-step process.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>First, the\u00a0amino acid tyrosine is\u00a0converted into another\u00a0amino acid, called\u00a0L-dopa.<\/li>\n<li>Then\u00a0L-dopa undergoes another\u00a0change as enzymes turn it into dopamine.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>In other parts of the body,\u00a0dopamine acts as a type of hormone called catecholamine. Catecholamines are\u00a0made in the adrenal glands- small hormone production factories that sit on top of the kidneys.<\/li>\n<li>There are\u00a0three main catecholamines: Dopamine, Epinephrine (adrenaline), and Norepinephrine.<\/li>\n<li>These hormones get released into the bloodstream when\u00a0the body is physically or mentally stressed. They cause biochemical changes that activate the so-called fight-or-flight response.\u00a0That\u2019s the body\u2019s natural reaction to real or perceived stress.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What are neurotransmitters?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Neurotransmitters are\u00a0chemical messengers that your body can\u2019t function without.<\/li>\n<li>Their job is to\u00a0carry chemical signals (\u201cmessages\u201d)\u00a0from one neuron (nerve cell)\u00a0to the next target cell.<\/li>\n<li>The next target cell\u00a0can be another nerve cell, a muscle cell, or a gland.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) What are Neurons?<\/h3>\n<p>Neurons (also called neurones or nerve cells) are the fundamental units of the brain and nervous system, the cells responsible for receiving sensory input from the external world, for sending motor commands to our muscles, and for transforming and relaying the electrical signals at every step in between.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onmanorama.com\/lifestyle\/health\/2023\/12\/02\/human-behaviour-may-determined-fast-changes-dopamine-levels.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Human behaviour may be determined by fast changes in dopamine levels<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dopamine is a neurotransmitter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":17703,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}