Translation by Fabiana Gouvea

What is the brain? How does it work? I believe this is the

main question, which made the reader spend his time in
order to have the answer and a little more. It would not be
fair to the history of mankind if I just summarize all its
complex answer in one sentence. Then letsstart the
discussion recalling the many sleepless nights and ravings
during the day suffered by our ancestors over time because
of the dream of one day unravel the functioning and
understanding of the brain and the future of consciousness
itself.

The Story
It's been a long time since men believe that our mind
comes from within our lovely head, it could not be
coincidence when primitive man suffered a trauma in the
region, soon appeared headaches, convulsions and even
the loss consciousness. One person who had this belief was
Hippocrates (460-379 BC), a man also known as "father of
medicine" who wrote: "It should be known that he is the
source of our pleasure, joy, laughter and fun as well as our

sorrow, pain, anxiety and tears, none other than the brain.
It is specifically the organ that enables us to think, see and
hear, to distinguish the ugly from the beauty, the good from
the bad, the pleasure from displeasure.
The brain is also the main base of madness and delirium,
fears and scares that we suffer, often at night, but
sometimes during the day; in which lies are the cause of
insomnia and sleepwalking, the thoughts that didnt occur,
forgotten duties and eccentricities". With the belief that the
head was the center of emotions, benefits and drawbacks,
of course they would not stop when something bad reached
them.There are recent discoveries in skulls of 10 000 (ten
thousand) years- old, with visibly surgical perforations made
while the skull owner was still alive. Today, it is believed
that they were made in order to let the evil, that was
trapped, leave. However over time the belief on where
emotions were stored went a little further down, to a part
that now we call heart.A great worshiper of this hypothesis
was the famous Aristotle, who also believed that the brain
served only to cool the body.Further on emerged a man
named Galen (130-200 AD), an investigative doctor which,
analyzing the brain in the format itself, became really
intrigued with some empty spaces called ventricles. They
had been previously analyzed in history, but people had not
given much importance. After much asking, Galen
concluded that those "holes" could only be the storage
location of awareness, which spread through the brain when
necessary.This hypothesis was strongly followed developed
and observed over time. Each ventricle became responsible
for different types of feelings, and it were marked and
analyzed even by Leonardo Da Vinci and several others in
medical books until the coming of Ren Descartes (15961650).
Descartes believed that the center of all emotions were
regulated by the pineal, a small gland located
approximately in the center of the brain. The pineal is one
of the few things that does not have a twin on the opposite
side, it is not bilateral. Everything would work like this: 1 - a

person touches something or is touched; 2- the pores of the

brain are opened, causing a response action that goes to
the pineal; 3- the pineal gland regulates if the response can
go ahead or not and if so, "inform the way forward." The
different textures of objects would depend on the different
activation intensities and the different personalities of
people would be the difference in number and shape of the
components which form a "reply".
With the arrival of the nineteenth century and the discovery
that the whole body was made of cells, it was expected that
there would be a takeoff on the study of nerve cells, but at
first it had not yet been accepted that the brain was made
of cells, so we had to wait for the improvement of scientific
techniques to make it possible to view these microscopic
structures a few decades later, which received the name
neuron by Wilhelm von Waldeyer in 1891
Ok, now we already know what is neuron, but how it works?
which is the structure that affords it to have from a few
centimeters to over a meter? To want and to be ready for
new information greatly decreases the gap between
ignorance and knowledge. Might the following pages help
you form the bridge to the new world of the neuroscience.

Neuron, its structure and basic operation

Starting with the neuron structure. Imagine drawing a star,
now extend one end to form like a tree trunk. Voil, you
have a model neuron (remembering that each part of the
central nervous system has several neurons of different
formats that have different functions) which can be
represented by the following image.

Now imagine several branches, one hundred to one

hundred thousand. One of the most intriguing things and

which apparently has no functional importance is that the

angle between the "branches" and "trunk" form ninety
degrees. Yes, youcan play Pythagoraswithyourbrain.
Now we will name their parts. Call all star tips of dendrites,
they are responsible for receiving the nerve impulse from
other neurons. The center of the star is called a cell body,
or soma, where there are cell organelles and their core. The
trunk we call axon, place responsible for driving nerve
impulses. The roots are axonal terminals, place of transition
of the pulse of a cell to another via an electrochemical
exchange called synapses
Before talking about the synapse, letsunderstand what is
the action potential. To understand the action potential, we
must go back to 1963, when Hodgkin and Huxley won the
Nobel Prize in Physiology / Medicine for your model on the
action potential of a neuron.
To illustrate the model, a human neuron would not be highly
recommended because of its diameter. They need a "giant
axon" possibly found in invertebrates, as a larger diameter
is the only form of electrical impulse follow a faster way in
these animals (we, vertebrates have another option, see
below). Therefore, chose the squid axon, which it was
possible to perform several discoveries, including a possible
idea of integral proteins in the membrane, responsible for
the transport of ions. The integral proteins can be divided
into channels and pumps. The channels differ from pumps,
for performing an ion transport without energy expenditure,
while the other one requires such use. These can be of two
types: aquaporins and sodium and potassium channels, in
which the channels are always open; and dependent
channels, which depend on a specific stimulus to open. The
pump has a power consumption for transport and the main
one is the sodium-potassium pump, making sodium leave
and potassium enter.
The neuron has a natural state called resting potential when
the potential difference between the inner and outer
membrane is -60mv. But the action potential, is when the
difference of potential brand + 80mV. How does this
happen? It all begins when an impulse reaches the neuron
passes the threshold (the minimum necessary frequency so
it can moves on, usually remembered by the phrase "all or
nothing") and goes to the axon, there the voltage-

dependent sodium channels open, and close some time

later. At this time, the inside of the membrane will be
positive and negative outside, but since it can not happen,
the voltage-dependent potassium channels are opened,
causing the interior comes back negative and positive
outside.

As previously mentioned, one of the things that make the

impulse go faster is the diameter of the axon. The larger the
diameter, faster impulse conduction. Furthermore there is
an extra option tht only vertebrates have, which can cause
the driver even faster. The myelin sheath. Whenever read
this name, think in a thermal insulator in electrical wires, in
this case, the wires would be the axon and its branches
while the insulator would be the sheath, which causes a
speed increase and decrease the loss of it . The cell body
and the dendrites have no myelin sheath because they
need to receive the stimulus in a more sensitive way that
the axon.
Now you know how the action potential works, remember
that alone it is not able to perform the whole process. We

need something that can make this information pass from

one neuron to another. Finally it is time to talk about the
dear synapse.
Synapse is the communication from one neuron to another.
There are two types, the electrical and chemical. In
electrical synapses, presynaptic neurons (from which comes
the impulse) and postsynaptic (to where the impulse goes)
are connected by a joint called cell gap, which allows free
movement of cytosols substances, directly to the cytosol of
the other, making the nerve impulse pass freely to the next
neuron. In the chemical synapses, cells are not connected
and the nerve impulse will come across a space called the
synaptic cleft (the space between the pre and post-synaptic
neuron) in which the information will be passed by
substances called neurotransmitters.
The cytoskeleton of a cell serves to give structure and
movement to it, but in neurons is not only that, its also
responsible for the transport of vesicles with
neurotransmitters inside, since its production site in the cell
body to the place where it will be passed to another neuron,
the axon terminal. When the bladder reaches, the terminal
axonal releases neurotransmitters in the synaptic cleft,
some activates postsynaptic receptors, part is reabsorbed
by the presynaptic neuron, which will be recycled in the cell
body and the other part will be destroyed by a special cell,
preventing the escape of neurotransmitters.
But after all, what on earth are these special cells? Dear
reader, let me ask you, have you ever wondered from
where the myelin sheath arises? After all, the nervous
system has a defense cell? The answer to these questions
are in the definition of five different types of special cells,
called glia, which exist in our brains. Yes, only 5 types.
Nevertheless, do not be fooled by this, they are in greater
quantity than the neurons themselves (which happens to
not exist 100 billion as previously thought, but at the last
count was approximately 85 billion in the brain).
The first kind is the astrocytes, which influence how
much a neurite (all branches ofaxon) can grow or shrink,
and are they who remove neurotransmitters from the gap
synaptic. The second type can scare a little by name, but

understand that their function is not to scare you, but to

create fear in unknown substances that invade the nervous
system, because through phagocytosis, they are your brain
immune cells, say hello to microglia. The myelin sheath is
produced by two types of glia cells, the difference is that
one produces the sheath in the central nervous system
(brain and marrow) in several neurons at the same time
and it doesnt allow the regeneration ofmyelin,
oligodendrocyte / Oligodendroglia. The other produces the
sheath in the peripheral nervous system (nerves) only in
one axonand it allows the regeneration of myelin, in this
case we are talking about the Schwann cell.
To talk about the last type of glia, its necessary that
you to remember what was said here at the beginning
about the ancient belief that those spaces called ventricles
contained the lifes gas, it is not the case. Inside the
ventricles, we find a certain fluid called cerebrospinal that is
produced in a part of the ventricular "wall" called choroid
plexus. But after all, what is the function of this fluid? Well,
it is a pure saline solution that acts as a bolster to the
cerebral cortex and the marrow, and it is that fluid that
doctors remove to know if you have meningitis or not.
Apparently it is not the emotions fluid, but we cant say
that it does not have importance. Finally yet importantly,
the fifth glia cell is the ependyma, responsible to coat the
ventricular wall, to facilitate the movement of the
cerebrospinal fluid and to organize the meeting between
nerve cells with the fetus.

I understand that the journey here was a bit weary, but

the way to understand what some judge to be the only real
importance takes a while, since before it is necessary the
basic knowledge, small pieces of information that together

form the world as we know. Therefore, I invite the reader to

know the world of the senses.
The X Senses
We can summarize the meaning of sense as a system
whose function is to perform the perception of the external
environment with our body. After all, how many senses we
have? For a long time we shared our senses into 5 parts:
vision, hearing, smell, taste and feeling. However, with the
improvement of science, some people say we have 6 or
even 7 senses! As these two new been pain and
proprioception (the ability to recognize the spatial position
of the body and the recognition of the position of each part
without the use of vision. For example, you close your eyes
at that time and still recognize the way it is sitting on
something).
VISION
Imagine the Egyptian pyramids, the temple of Athena,
the sea, your parents or any known person, then see a
picture of you imagined and ask, "Is it like?" - In most cases
the answer will be yes. However, why that? The answer to
this question could be answered by vision but probably you
have already seen a picture of the Egyptian pyramids, the
temple of Athena, the sea, or you have already been there
and the same thing about known person. What about you
have never seen a picture of a place, but somebody tells
you about how it is the place and when you arrived there, it
is very similar to what you thought? Well, if your friend said
that in front of some place there is a white wall, a tree and a
black gate, and you have already seen those things at least
once in your life and you use those memories trying to
create a new image, our brain does that all the time! How
this happens in the process of vision?

It all starts with the light passing through your eyes. At

the bottom, the eyes there is a part called the retina, which
is made of two types of photoreceptors, cones (they are
responsible for color perception) androds (they are
responsible for light perception, and they appear in larger
amount).These two together are responsible for changing
the information collected into electrical signals, which will
ride a long way to the back of our brain, called the occipital
lobe, so then follow to the visual cortex present there. It is
believed that what happens is an organized cell separation
placed by layers, which occurs the capture of these signals.
So, each layer would be responsible to decode these

impulses to create the shapes and colors, to develop a

spatial organization of the world around us. As difficult as it
may seem to believe, we are biologically organized.
HEARING
The power of listening is responsible to make us know
if the subway is coming or is not when we cannot see it, in
this case, we can running and do not be late at school, work
or any other place we want to go. The power of listening is
one of responsible for the music industry involves so much
money. It is one way to recognizing people. Nevertheless,
how did it all happen?

It all begins when sound waves pass through the ear,

they are collected by their external structure, and they go
to the external auditive canal, so they are piped bound to
the eardrum to make it vibrate. It is time to expand this
vibration to the three ossicles, the malleus, incus
andstirrup, when it gets at the membrane, it will send the
vibration to the cochela, a hearing structure that resembles
a shell. We will find there the basilar membrane, which with
its 30,000 hair cells (they possibly correspond to different
frequencies), they will suffer a mechanical vibration that will

turn into electrical signals, and each neuron will send

different frequencies to the auditive cortex, in the brain.
TASTE AND SMELL
The perception of what you eat is affected by the smell
of it or by external smell, even if it is not affected
chemically the components of each one. You will
understand better explained them separately. Lets start
with taste.
Taste: All flavors that we feel are formed by the
combination of 5 flavors (sweet, salty, bitter, sour/acid)
recognized by our biological receptors which are grouped in
taste buttons, sensitive set cells to some substances, they
are located in present projections taste in tongue called
taste buds. Each papilla corresponds to a different taste and
its perception will only occur if its concentration reaches a
certain threshold. Each papilla has one or hundreds of taste
buds, while each taste bud has 50 to 150 receptor cells,
which are responsible for the directly taste reception.After
these cells notice the presence of these products, they send
electrical signals to the nerve fibers and they will forward
those electrical signals to the cranial nerves to brain regions
related to this sense, it is usually the insula and the orbital
caudal cortex, the last one is located in the frontal lobe, as
the name suggests, is located in the front of the brain.

SMELL: In our nose, we have a region called the

olfactory epithelium, located on the roof of the nasal cavity.
There are cells there that capture smells (they are
represented by small particles). These particles link to
protein receptors located at the tips of sensorial hair cells,
whose endings link to secondary olfactory neurons located
in the olfactory bulb where they will be processed. Another
place where the smell is processed is in the orbital cortex,
located in the frontal lobe.

The ways the particles are captured and processed in

these two senses are very similar, but it is not the reason
why there is certain "interference" between the two senses.
In fact, we only realize that they are interconnected
because the place where they end up. As every division
created in the brain, I cannot say that to one side have
100% of a thing and the other has 100% of another. There
is a region that the neurons mix and connect with the
perception where each one is responsible, so that is what
happens in these two senses. This is the link that makes
you drink something that you dont want to covering the
nose.
TOUCH
This sense allows feeling the texture and shape in the
world around us; it allows seeing if the food is hot or cold.
The sense that provide the pain when we fall as we was
learning to ride a bike, and even more, after we put a
medicine in a place, all of this make us up again and try, we
try to feel safe to move on and feel the wind embrace our

bodies as the sun burning our cheeks. None of this would be

possible without this incredible sense.
There are several types of receptors on our skin; each
one is to identify temperature, pressure or even pain, in the
case of nociceptors. These sensorial receptors are started in
differently ways, by electrical signals sent after being
pressed as in the case of the Corpuscle of Pacini (that looks
like a small lollipop), or after the release of certain
chemicals substances by the skin after an injury, such as
nociceptors. Once they are activated, the signals are sent to
the spine. If it is a sign of pain or high temperature, this
path will be by small diameter axons and without myelin,
and it will take more time. If it is texture, they will pass
through large diameter axons and myelin, and it will go
faster.
After they arrived to the spine, the boost will go through
another long way to get to the somatosensory cortex,
where the touch will be recognized.
We have irregular densities of mechanoreceptors in our
body. Places with higher density are easier to identify the
different touch, as in a region with a lower density, which
makes different touch, in most cases, they are perceived as
one. In the picture below, we can see the Homunculus
Penfield, which has as size of certain areas proportional to
the density of mechanoreceptors present there.

Motor System
When you rush out to hug someone that you have not
seen for a long time or when you move your fingers to write
a letter, or when you blink, and even when you make some
movements by reflex. These are all forms of movement, but
they are not controlled in the same way.
To study this system, we have to separate in fields. The
skeletal nervous system is responsible for voluntary
movement (in most cases) in our body, it works with the
following web: the encephalon (more in associative cortex /
neocortex / limbic system) in this case, is responsible for
any kind of motivation to realize the movement (whether of
hunger / thirst, or even more material things like getting up
to turn the TV) and they are responsible for future voluntary
movements with the use of skeletal muscles. After receiving
the motivation, we have to figure out how the action will be
done. This part is also controlled by the encephalon, but in
other parts of it, such as cerebellum (evaluation of
movement and correction / bug fixes); primary motor cortex
(list of pre commands / action plan) and basal ganglion
(estimate of movement / motor coordination). After that,
nerve impulses will appear to the spinal cord, which follow
by the nerves until the desired muscle.
The other studied system is the visceral motor system
that is responsible for involuntary movements of our body.
This system is mainly controlled by hypothalamus. We can
study this part with that simple case when your leg rises
freely when you take a hit in the hamstring. This happens
because after being hit, the receiver recognizes as a
stimulus and induces a nerve impulse to a sensorial neuron
(afferent). The impulse passes through the cell body of the
neuron, in the dorsal root ganglion, and the sensorial axon,
when it arrives in the gray substance of the spinal cord
(where probably the stimulus is also sent to the
encephalon). So, the impulse passes through a correlation
center (intercalate neuron) which passes the boost to motor
neuron (efferent) propagated by the axon of this, by the

ventral root to the terminal organ in contact with one maker

and when if it is a muscle is excited to contract.

Neurodegenerative Diseases
Now that you know more or less how their senses and
their motor control work, nothing is fairer than get to the
point that interests most of the world population. It is time
to talk about neurodegenerative diseases, illness that
affects more and more people around the world.
ALZHEIMER
It is the inability to remember vocabulary, loss of
attention, emotional instability, difficulty in recognizing
objects and even their own family. These are some of the
symptoms of a person with Alzheimer.
Unfortunately, like all degenerative disease, there is no
cure, but there are successful attempts to prevent it from
being worse and it remains stable. However, how something
so terrible could happen?
Because of a German psychiatrist named Alois
Alzheimer, today we have a slight idea about what causes
this disease. So far, it is known that at the beginning there
is a great production of a protein called TAU in the neurons
that atrophy the cytoskeleton of it. Without it, the
neurotransmitters cannot leave the cell body and get to the

place where will participate in the chemical synapse. We

also know that there are plates in the extracellular
environment called SENISplates, which have a dense center
made of accumulation of beta amyloid protein (which has a
yellowish color visibly apparent in the brain of Alzheimer's
patients) surrounded by a ring formed by particles of
neurons, astrocytes and microglia. These plates normally
focus on certain regions, and they leading to low blood
supply to the place. One of these places is the
hippocampus, which has great importance in the memory
cycle.
Today there is a division of the disease in 4 stages and
they are identified as the symptoms. Lets see them:
1- Loss memory of short term; loss of attention;
difficulty in abstract thinking; apathy.
2- Difficulty to recognizing objects (agnosia); loss of
ability to execute precise movements (which does not mean
that the patient is physically incapable), also called apraxia;
decrease the vocabulary.
3- Inability to remember vocabulary (loss at a more
advanced level); non-recognition of relatives; emotional
instability.
4- Terminal stage, full dementia.
We do not know which the first case of this disease was
and certainly, we will not know what will be the last. The
disease usually appears in older age people and the
diagnosis is delayed, because though the disease can lead
to fewer neural connections, life itself already does this with
us normally, and this makes it difficult a fast and accurate
diagnosis. Then we have to take care of the weak, because
even sick they are still people and it is not their faults what
occurred.
HUNTINGTON
An American doctor with 22 years old at the time called
George Huntington first described this disease in 1872.

Nowadays, we known 3-7 cases per 100,000 inhabitants,

but even it is rare, it is genetic and very serious.
Today we know that it is autosomal dominant and it
occurs by a mutation in a gene located on chromosome 4,
leading to a decrease of neurotransmitters such as GABA
(with the help of Cl-, it gets inside the neuron more
negative, making it more difficult to reach the threshold and
then to propagate the nerve impulse, so it makes the ESMO
doesnt occur. It is recognized as the major inhibitor of the
nervous system), acetylcholine (usually associated with
motor systems) and dopamine (typically associated with
movement, emotions and vital functions).
The main symptom is chorea, characterized by
involuntary movements of the entire body that resemble a
disorganized dance. There are also other symptoms such as
depression, irritability, and difficulty to swallow.
PARKINSON
As much as people make fun and make jokes about the
disease whenever someone is shaking too badly, I come to
remind you that Parkinson's disease is serious and affects
the patient not only physically but also psychologically.
James Parkinson was the person who first described the
disease in 1817. He was a paleontologist, geologist, political
activist and English surgeon named James Parkinson. He
was 62 years old at the time. Parkinson is a degenerative
disease that is caused by loss of dopaminergic neurons in
the dark substance, which usually sends dopamine to other
regions and then it ends up inhibiting involuntary
movements. Without the necessary dopamine, it is not
possible prevent these movements, causing the shaking.
(Of course this is the tip of the iceberg, but I am not going
into more specific details because what I really want with
this booklet is to show to the readers the principles of this
science on rise).
Like Alzheimer, Parkinson also has clinically different
stages, but this time they are 5:

1- Shakes and "hard" phase (without a lot of facial

expressions).
2- The two sides of the body committed.
3- There is already 80% of death of dopaminergic
neurons in the dark substance. There is instability in
posture (recognized by the pushing test).
4- Difficulty to swallow saliva.
5- Inability to stand up alone.
AMYOTROPHIC LATERAL SCLEROSIS
It is a degenerative disease not much understood and
hardly controlled which can appear at any time of life of a
person and for no reason. Yes, the technology is so
advanced nowadays and the cause of some things still
remains a mystery.
It is characterized by a deterioration of motors neurons
in the brain connected to the volunteer movement, which
often send stimulus to the muscles so we can be able to
walk. Without receiving these stimuli, muscles begin to
deteriorate; even the muscles from the respiratory system,
leading to death which is often connected to it.
One reason that is not explained very well and still is
not unproven, is that the victims may be an increase of
glutamate, an excitatory neurotransmitter (which favors the
propagation of an action potential) and when it is in excess,
it can lower something called superoxide reductase,
responsible for the transformation of the free radicals in O2.
Without it, we have a toxic situation.
How have the disuse of muscles, the main symptoms
are: muscle weakness; hardening of the muscles (sclerosis)
initially only one side of the body; muscular atrophy
(amyotrophic); loss of sensibility.

Sleep
No doubt sleep is one of the most loved things in today's
society and something that we cannot imagine ourselves

without, but why sleep is so important? Imagine a super

computer running 24 hours a day, now imagine all
programs and documents stored there and each one with a
fairly high power consumption. It would not be scared if the
electricity bill in the end of the month will come pretty
expensive. Now imagine that this computer is your brain.
One of the tricks he uses to save the net energy
consumption is to turn off useless areas at certain times
and redirect energy to regions that are being targeted in
certain situations. It already generates a monthly savings,
but now imagine that this computer cannot shut down
certain programs because it would lead to his dismissal as a
whole, then what does it do? It updates. When we sleep our
brain shuts down the world, depriving the movement and
external stimuli at the same time updates on the
information received and makes a check-up on the body.
How do we know this?

Ok, now besides you are wondering what those lines of

the image that look like more uncontrolled heartbeat, but in
fact they represent their brain activity levels measured in
an electromyography.
We divide sleep into 5 phases.
1- The muscles are still active. The eyes blink
frequently. Medium term between awake the sleeping.

2- At this stage the person doesnt blink anymore and

the effects of the first stage are stronger.
3- Now the person does not respond easily to stimuli
from the external environment.
4- Third stage of effects is stronger. All the pathways
involving acetylcholine turn off.
5- Phase 5 or REM (rapid eye movement). In this part
acetylcholine is back to be released and we believed this
release is linked with dreams. It is in this stage we also
believed that occur the storage of information in
thehippocampus.

Drugs
I decided to leave them to speak at last. How come?
Well, if you thought it is strange we know so little about
diseases that affect most of the world population for
centuries, you will find even more confusing the world of
drugs, whereas a single specimen can interfere in almost all
your senses at the same time, what it makes something
quite complicated to study. Another reason is because the
drugs are polemic. I want you have been thinking not only
about the social consequences, but the biological too, so it
would not be fair to leave you confused by reviewing your
opinions about an issue and then leave for another because
you did not understand later, and will have to be reading
several times because your concentration was elsewhere.
When analyzing the biological side of drugs we see that
they can act depressing or exciting a system. To prove that
lets see this chart:

When some drugs depress the system, we say it is

hyperpolarizing the system, it takes even more time so that
the neuron can continue with the impulse. But when the
drug is exciting the system, we say it is depolarizing the
system.
ADDICTION
What does it makes a person addicted and the other
does not? There is not a right answer yet. But we can
inquire about the possible reasons, come on.
The drugs in general increase the effects of inhibition of
cell Central Nervous System, they cause the anxiolytic
effect (release of dopamine, which causes a certain
pleasure), but with time the cell gets through adaptation
and what you consumed before no longer has the same
effect, so it makes you consume more and more. At this
point, say hello to addiction.

What many people dont know is that certain drugs stir

the level of certain neurotransmitters, and there are people
who dont produce the quantities required, they reward
with the use of drugs. What could it mean "being more
likely" since not all the people who use drugs are addicts,
but be careful when you talk like that, because there are
people addicted who already produced normal amounts of
neurotransmitters.

Another thing that could accentuate the addiction, it

would be the types of neurotransmitters that they will
mimic.How come? Well, lets consider our evolutionary
past, we needed something that push us to consume calorie
foods, we get plenty of rest and reproduction ourselves,
since all these things were necessary for our survival. Today
we call this "pleasure center" of reward system, which
encourages us to perform certain tasks more often than
others. Today this center is activated not only to things
necessary for survival, for example, games; films; music
and it is overactivated with the use of drugs, which directly
or indirectly increase the amount of the main
neurotransmitter of this pathway, dopamine.
HEROIN
Heroin entered the world market in 1874 as a medicine
for cough in children and people addicted in morphine.
Ironically, later it was discovered that it turned morphine in
the liver.

The drug is known as diacetylmorphine is a depressant;

it causes a decrease in the activity of the Central Nervous
System. During absorption in the gastrointestinal tract,
diacetylmorphine undergoes a quickly hydrolysis and it is
converted into 6- monoacetylmorphine, which is soon
hydrolyzed to morphine.
The remainder follows the blood flow and they will stop
in the brain by binding to opiate receptors (where typically
operates the endorphin, and there occur normal regulation
of pain sensation), as if increasing the endorphins in the
nervous system. Its effects are associated with interfering in
the dopaminergic pathways of limbic system (indirectly
increases the amount of dopamine in the reward system)
and cortex, and it has as main symptoms confused
thoughts, a lack of coordination, fast feeling of pleasure,
nausea, and pain relief .
ECSTASY
It was created during the First World War by a German
named Anton Kllisch to the Merck Company, which had the
aim of increasing the yield of the military since the new
drug deceived the symptoms of hungry and sleep.
It acts by means of an antagonist (substance that binds
to a receptor without releasing nothing, just to make the
rest and not release anything between) "closing"
Presynaptic receptors as well as dopamine, serotonin and
noradrenaline (neurotransmitters usually linked to mood,
anxiety and related) are not reabsorbed, they get
accumulated in the synaptic cleft and constantly connected
to Postsynaptic receptors, generating a temporary feeling of
pleasure and excitement.
MARIJUANA
Inside our nervous system there are several types of
neurotransmitters and receptors, among them are the
cannabinoids receptors, which are activated when they are
in contact with substances of the same type usually found
in our brain and in cannabis sativa, popularly known as
"marijuana leaf", and they have as the major psychoactive

ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Nowadays we know

some places that they act by the location of two types of
receptors, CB1 and CB2. CB1 is found in: limbic system
(elaboration and emotional expression / hippocampus "headquarters" of memory); prefrontal cortex (cognitive
functions such as modulation of social behavior and
decision makers) and motor system. The CB2 is found in the
immune system, but its effects in these systems are still
largely unknown.
We dont know exactly how THC and other
cannabinoids found in cannabis sativa act specifically in the
human body". But some studies made with marijuana users
revealed some potentially beneficial symptoms for some
diseases, such as: relaxation and wellness (natural
analgesic for patients with chronic pain); increased the
appetite (required for patients with cancer or AIDS, mostly);
nausea reduction; reduction of intraocular pressure (shortterm symptoms, patients with glaucoma); muscle spasms
control (patients with multiple sclerosis).
Marijuana does not kill, instead everybody thinks but it
is not everything a charm. We cannot forget the evil
symptoms, such as: short-term memory loss; panic attacks;
increased anxiety; learning disabilities and others.
The beginning of the medical use of cannabis was not
made for lack of drugs that would generate the same
benefits, but as a new treatment option that gives to
different patients not always the same answer to the drugs.
ALCOHOL
Alcohol is one of the most used drugs in the world and
also one of the oldest that we know. It works inhibiting
glutamate receptors, so it reduces its excitatory action. At
the same time, it activates the GABA receptors, which open
chloride channels, decrease the pace of action potentials,
depress the work of the neuron and cause a sedative effect,
to a drunk effect.
NICOTINE

It is the active ingredient in tobacco. His name came

from tobacco diffuser coming from Portugal, in France, Jean
Nicot. Nicotine acts on acetylcholine receptors and can act
either as a stimulant as a sedative. It stimulates the adrenal
glands, causing an adrenaline rush, causing a sudden
release of glucose combined with an increase blood
pressure. Nicotine also releases dopamine in brain regions
that control motivation, so this is one of the reasons why
people can continue smoking.
COCAINE
Mainly because of its effects, which is to prevent a little
hunger and coca leaf (from which cocaine is derived) is
widely produced in the region and it is not new, there is a
tradition from the time of the Incas in chewing the sheet at
high altitudes. But you should not make mistake, because
the consumption of coca leaf leads to very small doses of
the drug uptake. The drug was brought to Europe after the
early years of Europeans in America. There does not know
when, but they estimates revolve around 1855-1860, it was
taken to isolation of cocaine, which soon became part of
wine (one called Mariani Wine, which was highly regarded
by Pope Leo XIII) and other types of drinks that only began
to remove the cocaine of its products in the twentieth
century, around the time that there was a ban on several
other drugs.
His neurological power constitutes the fact that it binds
to an uptake pump catecholaminergic neuron (dopamine,
noradrenaline and adrenaline), it causes accumulate
dopamine in the synaptic cleft, which is constantly
"feeding" Postsynaptic receptors. Other problems also occur
because cocaine block the sodium channels and reduce the
permeability of the membrane of axon to sodium ion, and
give the feeling of a local analgesic.
LSD
This abbreviation comes from Lysergsurediethylamid,
German word for diethylamide from lysergic acid, which is
one of the most potent hallucinogenic substance known and

unlike other drugs; it is not as old as well. LSD was created

in 1938 by a Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann called as part of
a research that looked for a cure for excessive bleeding
after childbirth. After Albert tried the drug to understand
better their effects, he shared it with the scientific
community. The shrinks proved LSD as a way to understand
better how schizophrenics felt. But in 1960, with the arrival
of the hippie movement in England, the drug soon spread
out to young people migrating to the United States going to
meet pop music and literary works worldwide.
Their symptoms occur through mimicry of serotonin,
and they cause an apparent increase in the amount of it,
but they still dont know for sure how it causes psychedelic
images.
We are still far away to unravel all the mysteries that
this magnificent science provides us, but I believe that with
persistence and much study, nothing is so far away. If you
like the introduction to a new world that I wrote the
preceding pages, or you were curious and thoughtful with a
taste of endless liked, but you want more, I'm happy
because my intention was reached. Now dear reader, I
invite you to continue the quest for knowledge. The bridge
has already begun to be made once the timber has been
caught, now it is up to our persistence find nails, hammers,
strings and all that had gone unnoticed so that one day, we
go beyond the abyss of ignorance and laziness and so we
get the immense world of knowledge.