The latest episode of the Brain Science Podcast is more technical than most. It deals with neurotransmitters. One of the key things that makes the brain different from a digital computer is that most of the signaling between neurons is actually chemical. Neurotransmitters are the chemicals released by one neuron that then interact with the receptors on another neuron or target cell (like a muscle). It turns out that it is the properties of the receptor, which is a membrane protein, that determines the effect of the neurotransmitter. This means that the same neurotransmitter can have very different effects in different parts of the brain and body.
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