Читать книгу Abnormal Psychology - William J. Ray - Страница 77

Passing information from one neuron to another involves a number of steps:

1 Neurotransmitters need to be created and stored.

2 An action potential travels down the axon to the terminal.

3 Through a variety of processes, a neurotransmitter is released into the gap between the two neurons.

4 The neurotransmitter then binds with specific proteins in the next neuron.

5 This either increases (excitatory) or decreases (inhibitory) the possibility that the next neuron will create an action potential.

6 The gap between the two neurons must be made neutral at this point by any of a number of mechanisms including making the neurotransmitter inactive, having the neurotransmitter taken up by the first neuron (referred to as reuptake), and removing the neurotransmitter from the gap between the two neurons.

It is these neurotransmitters that lead to anxiety processes in some cases but depression in others. Most medications used for treating mental illness influence the neurotransmitters at the synapses. Alzheimer’s disease, which results in memory loss, is caused by destruction of individual neurons throughout the brain (Nath et al., 2012). Most addictive drugs increase the amount of dopamine in the gap between the neurons.