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[–]Canbot 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I'm not a neuroscientist, what is a dopamine producing neuron compared to other neurons? Is this something that could regrow a portion of a brain in cases of lobotomies, tumor removal, strokes? Can this reverse cognitive decline?

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Your brain has multiple neuron circuits, one is dopamine-based, another is serotonin-based, and so on for every neurotransmitter type. It might help cognitive decline as the dopamine-driven circuits in the brain are among the largest ones in the human brain.

[–]Canbot 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

So are these circuits mostly isolated from each other? Is that why we have memories tied to emotional states.

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yes the circuits are mostly isolated from each other, but they do overlap.

The emotional memories thing is because of how our amygdala and thalamus store information, as compared to the rest of our info that's stored in the cerebral cortex. Only mammals have this amygdala and thalamus structure, and reptiles don't.

Here's an image that shows a few different neurotransmitter chemicals and the locations the associated neurons have in the brain: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324477277/figure/fig4/AS:614568283877377@1523535905165/Overview-of-distributions-for-dopamine-norepinephrine-and-serotonin-receptors.png

This is also why taking different drugs has different psychoactive effects