Serotonin Builds Your Brain
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Often referred to as the natural “feel-good” chemical in the body, serotonin is a brain chemical that is integral to a person’s sense of well-being. It is most often associated with its role in the central nervous system, helping with mood regulation, self-confidence, and satisfaction. Doing your favorite hobby or planning the perfect Valentine’s Day with your sweetheart can all trigger the release of serotonin in the brain. But it turns out that serotonin doesn’t just make you feel good – it may also be responsible for the development of a large neocortex, which allows you to speak, calculate, make decisions, and handle complicated tasks.
Serotonin and Brain Size
The size of the human brain gradually increased during human evolution, with the neocortex being a major affected region. The neocortex enables humans to think, speak, drive, calculate, and make decisions.
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden in coordination with those at University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus in Dresden sought to better understand the cause of the expansion of the neocortex and identified numerous molecular players that act as a growth factor for brain cells, which contribute to the expansion of the outer cortex.
More recently, the researchers found another important role in the neocortex of the developing brain of humans – but interestingly, not in mice. The researchers theorize that serotonin from the placenta may have contributed to the evolutionary expansion of this region of the human brain.
The research team led by Wieland Huttner, a founding director of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, further investigated studies associated with neocortex’s expansion that has taken place over the course of humankind. One study from Huttner’s lab looks specifically at serotonin in the expansion process, which hasn’t been explored in detail. It is known that serotonin is produced in the placenta and delivered to the developing embryo via the umbilical cord and blood circulation. From there, it makes its way to the brain (in both humans and mice). However, the function of this neurotransmitter derived from placenta was previously unknown.
A Pivotal Factor
Serotonin is a naturally occurring substance that works to carry signals between neurons (or nerve cells) throughout the body. One scientist, Lei Xing, in Huttner’s group previously researched neurotransmitters and further investigated their role in the developing brain, finding that a certain serotonin receptor, identified as HTR2A, was found in the human neocortex, but not that of mice. Xing questioned whether the HTR2A receptor was part of the answer to the question of why humans have a larger brain. Researchers then sought to answer this question in a new study.
To determine if HTR2A was a factor in the growth of the human brain, researchers induced the production of the receptor in the neocortex of embryonic mice. The presence of the HTR2A receptor led to a chain of reactions that caused a heightened production of brain cells. The increase in the number of cortical neurons encourages a larger brain, especially in the neocortex.
According to Huttner, this study sheds light on an important growth factor role that serotonin has in highly developed human brains. Certain psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders have been associated with an abnormal signaling of serotonin as well as a mutated or disturbed expression of the HTR2A receptor, including ADHD, autism, and Alzheimer’s disease. The findings in this recent study may help us to better understand serotonin and the important receptor linked to it during brain development, possibly suggesting new approaches for treatment of certain neurological disorders.
Some studies have shown that increasing serotonin levels in the brains of elderly with cognitive impairment can slow down the rate of atrophy in their brains. Medications such as Zoloft, Prozac, and Lexapro can help these patients both feel better and have less cognitive decline.
The Bottom Line – Serotonin Grows Your Brain
The neurotransmitter serotonin has the capacity to act as a growth factor for fetal human brain stem cells that are responsible for determining the size of the brain. In addition the possibility of greater-than-average brain grow, this research offers hope for therapeutic treatments of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders, such as autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Down Syndrome, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Base on these studies and other research in the field of neuroplasticity to reverse the effect of aging, Dr. Fotuhi has developed a 12-week brain rehabilitation program. This program includes several interventions which when combined can result in a larger and stronger brain. To learn more about this program, please visit NeuroGrow.com.
This blog was written by Mrs. Courtney Cosby and edited by Dr. Majid Fotuhi.
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Your Brain on Alcohol: How Much is Too Much?
If you’ve kept up with your readings – meaning our blogs – you’ll recognize the term “brain shrinkers.” However, if you’re new to our posts and thus have no clue what a brain shrinker is, no worries, I’ll give you the gist. Brain shrinkers – what I’ll refer to as “shrinkers” moving forward – consist of anything that cause your brain to shrink over time. This includes psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety, chronic stress, lifestyle habits such as poor diet choices, lack of physical activity, drug and alcohol abuse, insomnia, so on and so forth. And while I could spend this time discussing why and how each shrinker damages your beautiful brain, I’m not going to do that. Instead, we’re going to talk about the one shrinker that’s most intoxicating. You know the one – booze.
Before you fall down the proverbial rabbit hole and start worrying that I’m going to tell you to stop drinking altogether, wait to hear what I have to say. Frankly, I don’t care about the single glass of wine that you have with dinner a few times a week. Even moderate alcohol consumption, defined by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) as one to two drinks (which can be one or two of a) 12 oz. beer with 5% alcohol; b) 8 oz. malt liquor with 7% alcohol; c) 5 oz. wine with 12% alcohol; d) 1.5 oz. of 80-proof with 40% alcohol) per evening is not cause for serious concern, although some research has shown that it can increase a woman’s likelihood of developing breast cancer by 0.55% over the course of her lifetime. What I’m most concerned about, however, is a pattern of heavy alcohol use. No, that one night two weeks ago when you drank five or more alcoholic beverages on a single occasion (i.e., binge drinking) does not qualify. However, if you’re a man consuming 15 or more drinks in a week, or a woman consuming eight or more drinks in a week, that’s cause for concern.
Your Body on Alcohol
So, what happens when you drink? Well, as you down your first beer, that liquid gold is absorbed through your stomach lining into your bloodstream, followed by diffusion into your body’s tissues. After 20 minutes, your liver starts to metabolize the alcohol; one ounce every hour. So, if you drink until your blood alcohol content (BAC) reaches the legal limit (0.08), it’ll take about five and a half hours to leave your body. While the amount of time it takes to expel the alcohol from your system does not vary widely from person to person, several factors do effect BAC and the amount of time it takes to reach the legal limit.
Factors that affect absorption and tolerance:
Biological Sex: Dehydrogenase, the enzyme that breaks down alcohol in your tummy, is lower in women than in men. So, if Jill and her buddy Joe drink the same amount in the same amount of time, Jill will have a higher BAC.
Hormones: They impact your body’s ability to process alcohol. Drinking the same amount of alcohol during menstruation will result in higher BAC.
Body Fat/Weight: Women usually have greater percentages of body fat and lower percentages of water compared to their male counterparts. So, even if Ann and Dave weigh the same, Ann will likely achieve a higher BAC at a faster rate.
Your Brain on Alcohol
It takes roughly five minutes for alcohol to reach your brain and 10 minutes for you to notice behavioral/emotional changes. You know that feeling of euphoria that you get within several minutes of starting to drink? Yeah, that’s normal, it happens during the early stages. Subsequent stages of alcohol consumption include depression and disorientation (0.05 BAC), excitement (0.09-0.25), and confusion (0.18-0.3), to name a few; increase in BAC gives rise to new feelings and behaviors.
As I’m sure you know, drinking impacts several regions of the brain. When you’ve reached the “excitement” stage and are experiencing slurred speech, blurred vision, feelings of impulsivity, and loss of fine motor skills, that’s a result of your frontal, occipital, temporal, and parietal lobes being affected. If we’re being technical, what’s really happening is alteration of neuron membranes, enzymes, ion channels, and receptors. What’s important for you to know is that moderate drinking and rare binges won’t have any long-term effects on your brain. As Dr. Fotuhi states in his book “Boost Your Brain,” “drink no alcohol and your brain will experience the usual degradation that happens with age; drink some and you’ll see reduced damage; drink too much and injury to the brain shoots through the roof.”
That brings me to the topic of long-term brain damage. As I’m sure you’ve heard before, alcohol abuse kills brain cells. The areas impacted the most include your cerebellum, cortex, and hippocampus, the areas responsible for hand-eye coordination, balance, decision-making, and general task and cognitive performance. Abuse of alcohol also damages myelin (i.e., the protective coat around the axon of the neuron; the highway that enables chemical messages to get from one neuron to another), which results in severe nerve damage. Some alcoholics may even develop a disorder called Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a disease that causes vision, coordination, walking, memory, and learning impairments.
Reminders:
–You can drink, just don’t overdo it. One glass of wine with dinner won’t do you any harm, but if you’re a male having more than 15 drinks within a week, or a female having more than eight drinks within a week, that’s way too much.
–Be nice to your liver. Remember, the liver starts to metabolize drinks after one hour. If you drink until your BAC reaches the legal limit, it’ll take around five and a half hours to completely expel it from your body.
–Different factors affect BAC. If you’re a female and you’re drinking with your male friend, remember that you will achieve a higher BAC in a shorter amount of time – blame higher percentage of body fat, hormones, and dehydrogenase levels!
-You drink too much, but you don’t know what your next step should be. Contact the National Drug and Alcohol Treatment Referral Routing Service, available at 1-800-662-HELP. You’re not alone. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
If you want to learn more about the effects of alcohol on the body or brain and how you can improve your brain function, check out Dr. Fotuhi’s Brain Fitness Program at mfotuha.maktechaccessories.com/.
This blog was written by Brianna Sirkis and edited by Dr. Majid Fotuhi.
References:
Alcohol’s Effect on Brain and Behavior
Factors that Affect How Alcohol is Absorbed and Metabolized
Your Brain on Stress
Stress levels are on the rise in America. While stress affects your day-to-day quality of life, it can also create a host of health conditions and impact your brain both structurally and functionally. In order to prevent this damage, it is important to understand the connection between your brain and stress. what stress is actually doing to your brain.
When you experience stress, the brain triggers the release of a hormone called cortisol into your bloodstream. Small amounts of cortisol can help you focus and take action in a high pressure situation; for example, you can function better when you sit down to take a test or when you meet a not-so-friendly bear on your camping trip. However, too much cortisol can shrink the brain, damage your memory capacity, and impair communication between different regions of the brain.
Damage to Memory
In a particularly stressful time of life, you may have more trouble remembering your doctor’s appointment or where you left your car keys. This is because stress directly impacts short term memory and can inhibit your ability to make long term memories. Studies show that even mild exposures to stress before a memory retention test result in worse scores. Research also shows that individuals with higher levels of cortisol had smaller hippocampi – the region of your brain that is critical for learning and memory. This is because stress can kill brain cells and make it harder for new neurons to survive. If you have fewer neurons in your hippocampus, your memory function will decline and over time you will have a higher risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease. Too much stress can erase the benefits of lifestyle factors that have been shown to be helpful for better cognitive performance and longevity (factors such as eating healthier, exercising, learning new skills, and sleeping well).
Damage to Executive Function
Not only does stress make it harder for you to remember the name of the coworker you just met, researchers found that individuals who experience chronic stress, have less gray matter (or brain volume) in their prefrontal cortexes. This region of the brain right behind your eyes is important for tasks such as planning, decision making, problem solving, self-control, and emotion regulation. This could explain why you experience more frequent mood swings, or why making a simple decision may feel more difficult during periods of high stress.
Damage to Communication
High levels of cortisol in the bloodstream, especially for long periods of time, can shrink and impair several areas of the brain. But stress can also change how the different brain regions communicate with each other. New research has found that chronic stress can result in the abnormal overproduction of myelin; a fatty substance that helps speed up the transmission of electrical signals between neurons.
Too much myelin can disrupt the brain’s sensitive balance of communication. Studies found that in people who developed PTSD, excess cortisol from stressful experiences led to an excess of myelin. The excess production of myelin may have strengthened the connection between the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory (the hippocampus) and the part responsible for fight-or-flight responses (the amygdala). A faster connection between these two areas can result in stronger fear responses to a given situation. These findings suggest that increased cortisol may make it more likely for someone to develop depression, PTSD, or other mental disorders because the excess myelin disrupted the brain’s normal communication patterns. This new area of neuroscience research suggests that when it comes to the brain, too much of a good thing – high levels of myelin and stronger connections — can potentially do more harm than good.
While reading this article, you may have felt your own stress levels rise as you learned about the negative impacts of stress. However, because of something called neuroplasticity, the brain has an incredible capacity to bounce back and repair itself. Introducing a few routines in your day-to-day life such as meditation, exercise, and getting the proper amount of sleep can significantly reduce your cortisol levels and protect your brain from the effects of stress. The good news is that a just few simple practices can significantly boost the level of neuroplasticity in your brain and make you feel calmer and happier.
If you’re interested in learning more about improving your brain function and memory, please visit us at www.neurogrow.com.
This blog was written by Lizzie Lewis, and edited by Dr. Majid Fotuhi.
Social Media and Eating Disorders: What's the Connection?
Social media has changed the way we connect with each other and the ways we think about ourselves. The number of people using these platforms skyrocketed in recent years and society is only just beginning to understand its negative effect on body image. While there is no single cause of eating disorders, researchers have found strong links between social media use and the development of eating disorders.
Eating disorders are a major public health issue and can cause serious long-term health problems including heart failure, neurological damage, and gastroparesis. Sadly, data shows that the number of eating disorders cases is on the rise, especially among adolescents. 69% of children now have their own smartphones by the age of 12, and 72% of teens now use social media daily. Only recently have studies begun to examine how those platforms impact an individual’s self-concept.
Since human beings are inherently social creatures, the lure of social media is clear. While these platforms offer many opportunities for new connections and interactions, they also allows for rampant social comparison. Popular culture promotes a particular type of appearance as “ideal”, which currently centers around thinness. Before social media, people may have seen this standard on TV or in magazines, but now they have the opportunity to actively engage with it in a social context.
Social media has a highly interactive format and encourages connection, not only with friends and peers, but also to various celebrities, models, and brands. It feels far more personal and offers the illusion that the user is less emotionally separated from the people they admire or aspire to emulate. Thus, these platforms have potential to create a deeper emotional impact on their users than they may be aware of.
While there are many positive aspects to these platforms, there is also a potential for significant damage. With its interactive format, social media offers a constant and active space to engage in social comparison. With photo and video editing features, beauty standards become increasingly unrealistic and can easily lead to severe body dissatisfaction. Young people, women especially, have been found to be particularly vulnerable to the effects of social media.
Teens, “tweens” (children aged 8-12), and young adults are in a time characterized by many bodily and developmental changes, all while attempting to figure out who they are. In this stage, they are wired to be more absorbed in their social relationships and they are more likely to internalize feedback they get from their surroundings as they attempt to form their own identity. Additionally, the parts of the brain responsible for reasoning and decision-making are not yet fully developed, which can increase the risk for confusing the perfectly edited photos or videos on social media for actual reality. Not only do these combined factors increase the risk for negative body image, but also the risk of developing anxiety and depression.
When examining this phenomenon, one study found that having even just one social media account was associated with greater thin ideal int
ernalization, body surveillance, and drive for thinness in a large sample of adolescent girls. Additionally, higher numbers of friends or followers and more time spent on social media platforms was correlated with higher level of body dissatisfaction. Other studies found that those who used social media consistently were more likely to have negative body image and engage in disordered eating behaviors such as food restriction and compulsive exercise. Overall, research has consistently shown that there is a strong connection between developing an eating disorder and social media use.
While there are multiple factors that determine whether an individual develops an eating disorder, research shows that use of social media increases the risk, especially in adolescents. This does not mean that you should never use social media. However, it does mean that you should be aware of how it may be affecting your own self-image and self-esteem in order to prevent this damage.
Disordered eating behaviors often go hand in hand with anxiety. If you are feeling unusually stressed out or anxious lately, check out this post to learn how neurofeedback at NeuroGrow Brain Fitness Center can help! To schedule an appointment, click here or email us at info@neurogrow.com.
This blog was written by Lizzie Lewis, and edited by Dr. Majid Fotuhi.