PSYC 462 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Autoreceptor, Striatum, Anxiogenic
Document Summary
Psyc 462 lecture notes taken on 16th jan 2018. Next lecture read textbook chapter 4: criteria for determining neurotransmitter. There are also orphan ligands and orphan receptors for which we have no knowledge of the neurotransmitters which bind to them. It must be easy to make antagonists of the receptors: neurotransmitters are packaged in vesicles. Transporters are proteins which suck in neurotransmitters to keep them safe and prevent their degradation by various enzymatic reactions in the cytoplasm: ca2+ ions are at a higher concentration outside the cell than the inside. Ca2+ channels are voltage- gated channels and they are part of a fundamental mechanism that brings together vesicles. When ca2+ concentration inside the cell goes up, vesicles fuse with presynaptic membrane. Then, vesicles open up and dump the neurotransmitters they contain into the synaptic cleft. Afterwards, they get pulled back towards the inside of the cell: neuromodulators can transmit different type(s) of signal.
